Ranma Saotome: The Atomic Kid
by ContraBardus
Summary: In order to ensure Ranma is manly, he sends him off with someone for special training.
1. Default Chapter

Ranma Saotome: The Atomic Kid  
  
Chapter one.  
  
Genma's big...mistake?  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
"But...but..." stammered Genma as he stared at the man with pleading eyes.  
  
The man was tall, but Genma was at face height because he was sitting on a barstool. He snorted and frowned at the man. "You got wax in yer ears? Get lost."  
  
"You must understand! If the promise is not kept, we'll both die!"  
  
"What?" said the man coldly as he let his shades fall slightly down his nose. His cold blue eyes stared forward with nothing but icy death in them. He was a gaijin, and a terribly frightening one at that. His hair was blonde and cut into a military style buzz.  
  
"Me and the boy! Not you!"  
  
"That's what I thought," snorted the man as he turned back to his beer. "You shouldn't make promises you can't keep mister. I ain't got time to take care of no brats, especially not a bunch of em. Which is what would happen if I took him."  
  
Genma stared at the man in disbelief. "Wha?"  
  
"Who do you think yer talkin too mister?" said the man as he peered into Genma's eyes through the shades.   
  
The smaller man simply nodded, he wasn't even sure why.  
  
"What a wimp," commented the taller man irritably.  
  
He paused at the sight of what was next to him. The young child, a six-year-old boy, was waving for another beer as he put down the glass on the table. He had a cheerful grin on his face as he belched loudly and turned to look the tall man in the eyes.  
  
Genma's eyes went wide as he noticed the man staring at his son. "Ranma! What do you think you are doing?!"  
  
The boy looked at his father in confusion. "Havin a beer. Why? That bartender sure is slow though. Hey! Over here moron!" The boy picked up an ashtray and nailed the man in the back of his head.  
  
"This yer kid?" said the man as he stood stiffly from his stool. He didn't sound very happy.  
  
"Yes," muttered Genma numbly.  
  
"A guy like you doesn't deserve a son like this kid. I'll take him off yer hands; he'll come when I feel like bringing him back. I want to make sure none of your wussiness rubs off on him."  
  
Ranma merely smiled, completely unaware of what the men were talking about.  
  
Genma turned to look at the boy. "Very well." Oddly, he didn't appear to even be slightly irritated with the man for his comments. "Ranma my son. You will go with this man, he is to be your sensei."  
  
The boy simply shrugged his shoulders and nodded. "Sure." It wasn't something that was unusual; he'd gone off with various people for a few weeks to learn a bit. Sooner or later, his father would come and pick him up. They were usually old men. Few of them had any kids, and they usually had lots of weird rules you had to follow 'because you're staying in my home'. This didn't appear to be any different, but this man was only a little older than his father.   
  
"Show some respect boy!" snapped Genma as he punched the boy over his head. It wasn't very hard, but he paused when he noticed the man watching with an arched eyebrow.  
  
"Don't discourage the attitude. It's part of being a real man."  
  
Genma merely nodded and stepped back a little.  
  
"Come on kid, I'm takin you fer a ride."  
  
"Okay sensei," replied Ranma as he turned to follow.  
  
The man paused in the act of straddling a gigantic Harley Davidson motorcycle. He sat down all the way and snorted. "Kid, don't call me sensei, only the Geisha are allowed to do that."  
  
The boy hopped on the back of the bike as the man jerked his thumb to indicate that was what he wanted. "What should I call you then?"  
  
"Duke."  
  
"That's a strange name," commented the boy.  
  
"Yeah, but it fits," replied the man stonily.  
  
Ranma noticed this, and realized that the man's tone and expression had never changed during the entire deal that led to him leaving with him. "Okay Duke-semp..."  
  
"Just Duke, no sempai, or san, or any o 'that crap."  
  
"Oh."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Years later...  
  
[Sorry, I must insert evil laughter here. Ahem. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!]  
  
It was a breezy afternoon in the middle of a grassy field. Two men stood alone, both with stubble on their faces and well built forms.   
  
They were both dressed relatively the same. The older one in a red muscle shirt with blue jeans and a gold belt buckle. The buckle had radioactive symbol on the front of it.   
  
The younger man had a silver buckle, and a black shirt. Oddly enough, neither one of them was armed at the time.   
  
"He ain't here yet."  
  
"I know."  
  
Neither showed any emotion throughout the conversation. It didn't even really matter who had said the words.  
  
"So, this guy's a wuss huh?"  
  
"Yup," replied the older of the two. Duke Nukem, he had a few more years on him now, but still looked pretty much exactly the same.   
  
The other was a boy of about eighteen years. His black shades hid his eyes from view, and his face had well formed stubble on it. Unlike the older man's military style cut, the younger boy had his hair tied back in a long pigtail. It went almost to the middle of his back.  
  
"Should I kill him?"  
  
"Up to you."  
  
"Ah, good."  
  
Duke wasn't sure what to say to the reply, because he didn't know if the kid was talking about killing his father, or the fact that the man had just arrived.  
  
"Well, I'll be seein you around kid."  
  
The younger one turned his head and frowned at Duke ever so slightly, but his eyes conveyed what appeared to be more than passing annoyance.  
  
Duke chuckled for a moment as he reached into his pocket for the keys to his bike. "You learn to lose that glare, and you might learn what it really means to be a man, kid. There isn't much in life that's worth more than a calm stare."  
  
The boy snorted at this and looked at the Japanese man that was approaching them. "Guess so. Hey Duke."  
  
The older man paused in the act of walking away and glanced over his shoulder. "Yeah?"  
  
"Thanks for the ride, all of it."  
  
"Ride ain't over yet kid," said Duke as he continued to walk back to where he'd parked his bike.  
  
"Where is my son?" snapped the man as he finally moved within speaking distance. "Where is Ranma?"  
  
"What the hell are you talkin about old man? Yer lookin at him."  
  
Genma paused and frowned his son. "You are not my son! Ranma is only sixteen!"  
  
"No shit."  
  
"What?"  
  
"What the hell did ya think would happen ya putz? You sent me with him so he'd make me a man didn't you?"  
  
"My god!" said Genma as his eyes trembled in amazement. "Nodoka will be so pleased!"  
  
"Yeah, great," replied Ranma stonily.   
  
"Let's be off!" said Genma cheerfully.  
  
"Where are we goin?" said Ranma casually as he looked around at the path they had started walking down by this point.  
  
"To China of course!" said Genma cheerfully.  
  
"What?" said his son as he actually skipped a step in his pace.  
  
"You have to learn your family's martial arts style. I'm sure you've kept up practice of course, but it is important to the name and honor of our family for me to complete your training in your family's style of martial arts.  
  
"Oh, road trip. Cool," said Ranma as he continued to walk.  
  
Genma wasn't sure what to make of that statement, he couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or not.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Several months later...  
  
"I said no."  
  
"What do you mean 'no'?"  
  
Genma Saotome was furious, but his son was completely calm. He stared his father dead in the eyes and simply frowned.  
  
"No."  
  
"I'm not asking permission! I'm telling you! This is a matter of supreme honor! We must..."  
  
"Don't care."  
  
"What?" muttered Genma as he stared at his son.  
  
"Don't care. Don't make me repeat myself again. You know I hate that." The boy was almost as tall as his father, and his physique was nothing to scoff at either.   
  
Genma stared him down fearlessly. "You'll do it or I'll make you!"  
  
Ranma's eyebrow arched ever so slightly.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Meanwhile, at the Tendo home...  
  
Kasumi frowned as she saw her father turn the page of the paper. She thought they sounded like silly comic books. She'd tried to read them once, but couldn't get into it. Most of the really important stuff involved some strange Gaijin. They were always at war with some sort of alien race in America it seemed sometimes. There had been a little spill over in Japan, but it was mostly the southern island of Okinawa. Apparently it was a very big deal, but it wasn't all that important in her little part of the world. There was no real connection to any of it in her environment, other than a few conversations about world news from time to time.  
  
Soun seemed to enjoy them; he read them every day. He was so amused that the little veins in his head popped out whenever he read them. He was positively red with merriment.   
  
Her father soon recovered from this and was back to normal though. He did give her odd looks from time to time. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He never looked at Akane or Nabiki that way, and she seriously doubted if it was some sort of perversion just from the look he had on his face when she noticed it in fleeting glimpses.  
  
Soun sighed as he put the paper down on the tabletop. "Duke Nukem saves the world yet again. Another happy ending."  
  
"That's very good father," said Kasumi cheerfully. "I've brought the mail in."  
  
Soun merely smiled at his daughter and accepted the pile of letters, and a single postcard. All else in his hands was discarded as he stood up with the postcard clutched firmly in his hands.  
  
++++++++++++++++  
  
A tall red head stood in front of a gigantic wet panda in the rain on the streets of Nerima. Rain drenched down her well-muscled body. Her black muscle shirt did nothing to hide her breast from view, and her baggy blue jeans were held in place with a large silver buckle.  
  
The panda flipped skillfully in the air and came towards the girl in a flying kick.   
  
The girl simply shifted back and launched a vicious uppercut that took the animal across its jaw. "Yer too slow."  
  
Genma growled angrily as he staggered to his feet. The boy had learned the basics of his family's art when he was young. It showed now, he had been practicing. However, the style was now somewhat different. Ranma mixed the strength and speed of Saotome style Anything Goes, with common street fighting techniques. It wasn't very graceful, but it was powerful and effective. Genma's head spun as he slammed onto his back from the force of the blow.  
  
He stood up and wiped his chin, his son was calmly walking away. Well, his daughter at any rate. It was time the boy learned some respect. He clenched a nearby street sign in his claws and ripped it up. "You're going boy, whether you like it or not," thought the panda as it chuckled evilly.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Oh my! There's someone at the door!"  
  
"Ooh! It must be...woah."  
  
A young girl was holding a rather large panda over her shoulder as she stalked into the room. It was impossible to miss the fact that she was a girl, as her shirt was slightly torn and her left breast was hanging out. "Hey."  
  
"Uhhh. Hello?" stammered Soun.  
  
"This the Tendo place?"  
  
"Oh! Yes!" said Kasumi with a shocked expression on her face.  
  
Akane simply stared dumbly at the mess in front of her. "Are you all right?"  
  
"These chicks yer daughters?" said Ranma as she frowned at the man in front of her.  
  
"Uhhh...yes?" muttered Soun.  
  
"I thought you said there were babes here old man."  
  
Everyone stared at her for a moment as she glared at the animal and slammed it on the ground forcefully.  
  
"There are! There are!" said the desperate animal's sign.  
  
"Um, excuse me..." said Nabiki as she started to grow annoyed.  
  
Ranma simply trained his eyes on her. "D'ya mind? I'm talkin to the panda right now."  
  
"Babes?" muttered Akane. "Why would there be any cute guys here?"  
  
"It appears as if someone has lied to her. Oh my!" said Kasumi as she blushed a bit.  
  
"Is there something we can help you with? Or did you just barge into our home to be weird?" said Nabiki as she stepped up in front of the girl and frowned directly into her face.  
  
Akane didn't seem that bothered by it anymore either, and she seemed to be moving towards angry as well.  
  
Ranma frowned very slightly and turned to face them. "I'm Ranma Saotome. Nice to meet you."  
  
Soun's eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped to the ground out cold.  
  
"Daddy!" cried Akane in shock.  
  
"You're a girl!?" cried Nabiki as she stared at her.  
  
"No," replied Ranma calmly.   
  
"Oh my!" muttered Kasumi in confusion.  
  
"Do you really need those glasses? You're inside now." Nabiki attempted to get a grasp on the situation.  
  
"Don't talk about my shades babe."  
  
"I'm sorry. We're being very rude. I'm Akane. You want to be friends?"  
  
The redhead turned to look at her for a moment. The girls were hardly what he'd call 'babes' but they were all cute in a young sort of way. It wasn't that bad being the only conscious man in the room. Well, it wouldn't be if he was.  
  
"Yeah. Whatever."  
  
"Great! I'll show you the dojo! You practice kenpo right?"  
  
"Practice? Nah. I own it."  
  
Akane seemed slightly confused by that response.  
  
"So this is your place huh? Your room."  
  
"No, this is the dojo," said Akane dumbly.  
  
"Nah. This is your room. I can tell."  
  
Akane blushed as she realized what the girl was talking about. "Um, kinda yeah."  
  
"I been to a few of the smaller ones before. Most dojo are essentially the same. Just the same stuff arranged slightly differently."  
  
"You've been around a bit?"  
  
"A lot farther than ya think."  
  
"Well. Let's have a little match then. I want to see some of what you learned." Akane said it cheerfully, but with a challenging tone as well.  
  
Ranma merely chuckled. "I'm not at my best now, but I think I can handle it."  
  
Akane gasped as the girl tossed the dogi she tossed to her aside. "Your clothes are constrictive. Just change first so we..."  
  
"Nah. I always fight like this."  
  
"Huh?" said Akane as she realized that the girl had a dangerous looking glint in her eyes.  
  
"All right." The honor of her dojo was at stake, even if it was only a simple contest. She would have to fight her best, as to not dishonor her name, or the name of her opponent's school.  
  
Ranma didn't care a lick about any of what Akane was thinking about. He was more smug amusement. "So, this chick thinks she can take me, huh?" Akane stood across from her ready to bow. Ranma spoke before that though. "Bring it on." She waved with her hand for Akane to move forward.  
  
The girl gasped. Ranma was making this a personal matter, she had refused to bow. Akane wasn't sure what to make of that. "I'd better not hold back. Either she's mad at our school, or she wants to make sure I go all out!" Her thoughts were broken as she found herself rushing forward in a quick snap kick aimed at the girl's gut.  
  
Ranma shifted aside like a boxer in a closed stance. Her forearms were shielding her face and breasts, and she wove around another spinning kick aimed at her head.  
  
Akane pushed back with her feet as she landed and stopped her momentum suddenly after a short hop. She tucked her fists at her sides and pushed forward again. This time her fist blurred by and around the redhead's skillful dodging.  
  
Again she jumped back gasping for breath. "This is unreal! Why hasn't she finished me yet?" She turned her eyes towards her opponent. "Why aren't you attacking? What's wrong? Hit me!"  
  
"That wouldn't be very fair at all," replied the girl as if she'd asked for the time.  
  
Akane's eyes went wide and she charged forward. "Finish this! You know I can't stop until one of us loses!"  
  
Ranma jumped back and bounced off the wall and over her head as she slammed her fists into the floor where he'd been standing. "Why not?"  
  
Akane gasped again, surprised by his maneuver. "My honor demands it!" cried the girl as she spun into a backhand.  
  
Ranma casually put his arm up and blocked it while reaching out with his other hand to poke her in the throat with the barrel of a very large handgun. "There, you lost."  
  
Akane let loose a weak sounding cough as she fell flat on her rear. "Huh?"  
  
"Don't worry. It's not illegal. I'm licensed to carry this anywhere on the planet."  
  
Akane was simply staring at her with her jaw working up and down. "That was...dirty!"  
  
"How do you think the bad guys fight?" replied Ranma calmly. "Best way to learn how to beat it, is to practice against someone who knows it. It ain't hard to find training partners if you go to the right places."  
  
Akane stared at the girl in shock. She was talking about killing people! "Who are you?"  
  
"I told ya. Ranma Saotome."  
  
"This is so cool! How do I get a job like that! Can I hold your gun?"  
  
"Maybe later, I might decide to let you see it," replied the girl stonily as she turned to walk out of the room.  
  
"Woah! This is so cool! Ranma's some sort of spy!" said Akane under her breath. "A real woman, doing a real woman's job! Man, I gotta find out how she did that!"   
  
Alas, Akane Tendo found another bright star in the Feminist movement. It was not too last...  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma stood up from the bath and stared at the girl in front of him. "What?" He was staring her directly in the face and didn't seem fazed at all by her entry.  
  
Akane blushed and slowly closed the door.  
  
"Heh. Guess she got to see it after all."  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma stood in the hallway and stared the girls down. He was dressed in the same clothes and had a hefty pair of boots on his feet. "Ranma."  
  
"Huh?" said the dumbfounded girls as they stared at him.  
  
"That's my name," he replied while puffing on a cigarette. "Quit starin at me." A rather quiet command that was obeyed by all immediately.  
  
Genma walked into the room with Soun at his side. They moved over to the tables followed by the girls. Ranma remained standing where he was with his cigarette.  
  
Genma nodded to the girls and their father. "I am Genma Saotome, and this is my son..."  
  
"I told you my name already, you know who I am."  
  
All three of the Tendo girls simply looked at each other. They didn't look very comfortable with the situation at all. So far, Ranma had treated them all like dirt that was beneath his notice. It was fairly obvious he didn't want to be there either, and from the way it looked when they came in, he was going to get his way. All three of the girls liked the idea of that happening very soon.  
  
Ranma merely stared the scene down as his father went into the story.  
  
"Damn, he's good," thought Nabiki too herself.  
  
"It all started a few months ago."  
  
"This idiot got us cursed at a magic spring in China." Ranma breathed out a puff of smoke.  
  
"I'll have you know it was for the good of your training!" snapped Genma.  
  
"A lot of good it did me," replied the boy coolly.  
  
++++++++++++++++++  
  
"This is it. We came all the way here so we could look at a spring?" Ranma didn't really sound surprised.  
  
"No boy! This is a training ground!"   
  
"Great."  
  
The guide walked between them and motioned forward. "Here we are sirs..."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Ranma, you lost your cool. That's what did it." He said the words to himself quietly. No one noticed, too engrossed in the story.   
  
++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma fell back from the bamboo pole, his balance gone as the animal charged and swiped at him across the top of the bamboo chutes. He was going to hit the ground hard and he knew it, and cursed himself as anger contorted his features. Then the icy cool sensation raged across his body as he slammed into the water. "Heh, not as bad as I thought." He had been expecting to land in between two of the spring on a thin path, he'd moved two feet farther than he'd thought.  
  
Then he broke the surface of the water.  
  
The guide's voice swam into his head and he frowned at him. "What? Why would I care some bitch died her a billion years ago?"  
  
That was when he noticed that his voice was a bit different. Slowly he lowered his eyes. Two mounds of flesh were where his massive chest had been. They were quite large and barely fit in his shirt at all. The weight of his belt was quite a bit lower on his hips as well. He staggered out of the water and brushed his hair out of his face. "Where is he?"  
  
The guide immediately pointed at the panda.  
  
Ranma's eyes gleamed with anger as he turned to face the old man. "Me and the panda are gonna need a minute or so alone."  
  
The man nodded once and quickly vacated the area.  
  
The animal was waving its arms frantically in front of its face. It was trying its best to squawk out a response with its vocal chords. It wasn't working very well.  
  
Ranma reached under each armpit where a massive semi automatic handgun was hung from each arm. "You'll make a nice rug."  
  
The guide poked his head out of a patch of bamboo. "So sorry to bother sirs!"  
  
"What?"   
  
"Jusenkyo curse not permanent. Is cure, even if only for little while."  
  
Genma was shaking with terror as he stared down the barrels of his son's hand cannons.  
  
"Start talkin, I'll decide this when you're done."   
  
"Hot water turn back into man once again! Cold water turn back to girl. Curse not too bad, no?"  
  
Ranma smirked at his father coldly. It was a rather empty looking grin. "I suppose not." He fired two shots and turned away.  
  
Genma was staring at the two gigantic bullet holes that were still smoking on either side of his head. He had to sit up and turn around just to see them both at the same time.  
  
He stood up and stared at his son's back. The boy's anger had been surprisingly painless. He wasn't sure if he should be bothered by it or not. He decided to let the situation be for a few hours so his son could simmer down a bit. It wasn't all that bad, surely Nodoka would cut both their heads off, but what the hell.   
  
Genma had to pause and rewind that statement for a moment.   
  
There was something wrong in there, he knew it, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.   
  
"Oh shit."  
  
Ah. Seems he's finally found it.  
  
"What the hell am I gonna do?"  
  
For hours, days, his mind worked on.   
  
Finally, a short time before they meet the fabled tribe of Amazon women...  
  
"Tendo! That's it! I've got it!"  
  
++++++++++++++++++  
  
"What? You're not telling them the whole thing?" asked Ranma after his father finished his tale of woe.   
  
"I've told them enough to understand," replied his father smugly. "We can tell them more later if we wish."  
  
"Yeah. I've been keeping my ears up about you since I was a kid. Heard around about ya. You aren't very good at not sharing information, you're not very good at much of anything actually. I don't really like you, but you are my old man, so I guess I'll have to put up with it for now. "Who knows, maybe you'll surprise me and turn out to actually be a halfway decent human being."  
  
Genma glared at his son. "It's time you learned some respect boy."  
  
"Thing you're big enough?"  
  
Genma snorted irritably and seemed to realize who was sitting around him. "We'll settle that later boy."  
  
His son just nodded.  
  
"Who is this creep?" muttered Akane under her breath.  
  
"I don't know, but he does seem rather unpleasant."  
  
"Your problem isn't so bad after all!" cried Soun as he drenched the pair with a nearby bucket. He barely had time to choke as Ranma snapped forward and slammed him headfirst into a wall by grabbing the side of his face and swinging him.  
  
Soun heard a dry click and felt the cool metal surface of a very big barrel that was pressed against the back of his head. "Don't ever do that again."  
  
Soun nodded slowly, as best he could.   
  
Ranma released him and the man staggered back. Ranma was pouring hot water over his head and slammed the kettle into his father's face and let the handle go. Genma was sprawled out across the floor in the nude and quickly jumped up and away to change.   
  
"If there's nothing else." The boy turned to walk away, but Soun stopped him.  
  
"Wait. There is still more business we must discuss."  
  
"Well the answer to that is no."  
  
"You cannot choose that path."  
  
"Says who?"  
  
"Says the blood of your family, who fought and died for the honor you so easily discard."  
  
"I've got honor, but it's my own. I'm not obligated to any promise I didn't make myself."  
  
"If you do not honor this pact, then our families will be opposed. We will do everything in our power to destroy you and your family Saotome. They only way to stop us from killing you, would be for you to kill me, and my daughters."  
  
"Woah, woah, woah," said Nabiki as her eyes went wide.  
  
"Yer one of those traditional pricks aren't ya?" said Ranma as he simply looked at the man calmly.  
  
"That I am," agreed Soun. "My eldest daughter, Kasumi, she's nineteen, my middle daughter Nabiki, she's seventeen, and my youngest Akane, she's sixteen. Pick any one you want, and she'll be your new fiancee."  
  
"Oh! He wants Akane!" exclaimed Kasumi.  
  
"Definitely!" agreed Nabiki.  
  
"These three little girls put together wouldn't be enough woman to satisfy me," snorted Ranma as he poked his ear with his finger. "Look. I'll hang around for a few months or so and see how things go. I don't like it, I'm gone, and you can just bring it on."  
  
"That should be enough, for now," said Soun as he nodded seriously.  
  
"Well, enjoy your new fiancee!" said Nabiki as she smiled at her sister cheerfully.  
  
"What?" gasped Akane.  
  
"Oh my! Nabiki! You shouldn't tease your sister that way!"  
  
"What do you mean? I wasn't talkin about just her ya know. Yer all my fiancee as far as I'm concerned."  
  
The three girls turned to look at each other and simply stared. None of them had any way to reply to that.   
  
Ranma walked towards the stairs and ignored their reaction. "Crazy place. Shoulda come by more often when things were down a little."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma stood staring at his father with a frown on his face. "School?"  
  
"Yes. I decided you should attend."  
  
"Fine."   
  
"The girls should be heading off any time now..." started Genma.  
  
"Nabiki."   
  
The girl went ridged as she stopped trying to sneak by the open door.   
  
"I'll see you later."  
  
He stood up, neither one knew who he was speaking too. The boy walked right by Nabiki just as Akane raced to catch up with her sister. She jogged around the boy with a frown on her face. He simply strolled calmly into the street as if nothing of any real importance was going on around him. He didn't even react to Akane barreling past him.  
  
"Who is this guy?" asked Nabiki out loud. She turned to look at her father, and noticed he had a strangely contemplative look on his face. Genma was sitting across from him with a scowl of his own.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
"The boy is out of control," grumbled Genma irritably. "He's strong and manly, but probably too much for his own good, and the good of the school! It was a mistake, I know that now."  
  
"Genma! How could you! You know what he did to me!" Soun growled bitterly.   
  
"I had no choice. He did it to me too! Nodoka still adores him, I've had to look at those stupid posters for years!"  
  
"She was before you got married!" snapped Soun.  
  
"Well, the first time sure," replied Genma with a shrug.   
  
"First time?" muttered Soun as he went pale.  
  
"Sure, happened like six times as I recall. Nodoka thinks I don't know, but he used to leave little notes to me on the back of the toilet paper. Telling me what she liked and stuff. Some of it was pretty useful.  
  
Soun stared at the man in horror.   
  
"Oh, it's just little Akane. She likes to paint on any kind of paper dear, you know that..."  
  
"Oh god!" cried Soun as he fell into tears and slumped down onto the table in misery.  
  
"I didn't expect Ranma to change this much," said Genma as he hung his head.  
  
"Do you think I want my daughters to be someone's bitches?!" cried Soun.  
  
"Well, no. Do you think I enjoy seeing my son enjoying all these girls?"  
  
"Of course! I would be euphoric!" snapped Soun.  
  
"Well, you're right, but that's beside the point."  
  
"Oh, I suppose you're right, Saotome."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma stood at the gates of Furinkan with Akane at his side. She was in a combat ready stance, while he was casually chewing on a toothpick and watching the scene in front of him through his black shades. "Boy. These guys got no clue how bad they're gonna get their asses kicked today do they?"  
  
"I don't need your help," growled Akane as the boys rushed forward.   
  
"You really don't think I'm gonna let you have all the fun do ya?" replied Ranma calmly. The corner of his lip turned up a bit as he popped his knuckles. "Let's see what they got."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
???  
  
Well, I'm bored, I don't feel like Gaijin right now, and I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now.   
  
Don't rag on me about the cigs. They are there and staying there, mostly because it fits in with the themes of the games.   
  
Dunno when or if I'll write this again. More of a fun idea, that may go somewhere if I think about it long enough. 


	2. Nuke2

Ranma Saotome: The Atomic Kid.  
  
Part 2  
  
Kick ass and chew gum.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma smirked as he spread his feet and put up his fists. Akane growled irritably at this from beside him. She faced the onslaught head on though and took up her own fighting stance.   
  
The crowd started to shrink as a few of the boys stopped running quite suddenly, a few falling on their rears as they stared in surprise.  
  
Most of them continued forward regardless.   
  
Ranma stood waiting for them calmly next to Akane. The girl started to step forward.   
  
One of the students nearby pulled his hands up to his mouth and called to his comrades. "Stop you idiots! That's the Atomic Kid!"  
  
Ranma's head whipped around to face the one who had spoken the words. His face was as expressionless as ever.   
  
The crowed had halted, and Akane stared at the boy at her side in shock. "What?"  
  
Ranma merely pushed his shades up his nose and walked forward with his hands in his pockets. He walked up to the terrified looking boy who had stopped the mad dash.  
  
"You know. I think your friends would like to know. Until you opened your mouth and called me that, I was gonna let anyone who stopped go. No one calls me that to my face."  
  
The boy whimpered, and the male populace of the school stepped back.  
  
Ranma slugged the boy dead in the gut and sent him to the ground. He noticed the reaction of the crowd and smirked. "I guess I could go easy on ya this time. Seein as everyone has got the point now."  
  
"What the hell are you doing!?" screamed Akane in shock as she dove into Ranma's head with a kick. The boy hadn't seen it coming and was planted face first into the dirt.  
  
Akane dusted off her hands and frowned at him angrily. "You bully!"  
  
Ranma stood up and dusted off his arms calmly. She caught a glimpse of his dark blue eyes as he simply gave her a passing glance just before he replaced his shades.  
  
"Man, what are those made of?" commented one of the crowd in awe. There was a small crater where the boy's head had hit the ground.  
  
He turned to face her and put up his fists calmly.  
  
"What are you doing?" snapped Akane.  
  
"You wanna fight? We go till one of us can't fight anymore."  
  
The girl stepped back and gasped in shock.  
  
"Come on."  
  
"Stop that, I'm not going to fight you!" snapped Akane irritably.  
  
"You started it," replied Ranma as he started to edge forward.   
  
"I was just..."  
  
"You're about to learn what it means to attack me. I can take a slap or two from a pretty lady, but you went over the line."  
  
Akane was starting to grow very nervous. "Look, I'm sorry..."  
  
"I can stand this no longer!"  
  
Ranma whirled around to face the new voice. An angry boy of about seventeen was rushing forward with a wooden sword held over his head. He had an angry look in his eyes as he bounded from behind the crowd, knocking onlookers aside carelessly. Ranma was a little taller than he was, but the older boy had a slight reach advantage with his sword. He decided it was easy to change that.  
  
Kuno was knocked flat on his ass by the shot. The resounding boom filled the campus and sent students diving into the ground in screaming mass.  
  
"Not so tough without your stick are ya?" commented Ranma as he stared down the sights of his still smoking desert eagle. The weapon was a shined black metal with polished wooden handles. An identical twin weapon rested inside the boy's school bag, from where he had taken the other weapon.  
  
"Kuno!" screamed Akane in horror.  
  
"He ain't hurt. Get up ya big pussy," snorted Ranma as he walked towards the boy's fallen form.   
  
Kuno was groaning painfully as he rolled slightly and lifted his torso up with his arm. "Wha?"  
  
  
  
"You shot him!" screamed the angry girl.  
  
"Nah, would have been much messier if I had," replied the boy stonily.  
  
Akane stared at the book bag the boy had in his hand dumbly. It was a large handbag, and she could still see a tiny bit of the other weapon's handle sticking out of it.  
  
"Come on, we ain't got all day."  
  
Kuno was busy looking at the stub in his hand. The end was puffed out and splintered, about an inch above his thumb. "My, blade," muttered the boy dumbly.  
  
"That ain't a blade, it's a stick," replied Ranma. He reached down into his boot and pulled out a large polished silver blade. It glinted in the sun as he showed all twelve inches of it to Kuno by pointing the tip at his face. "If yer thinkin it's a good idea to go get one to use, I'll put this one through your teeth after I shoot you."  
  
Kuno merely stared up at the boy in horror and nodded slowly.  
  
"Good." Ranma's tone had not changed once throughout the entire conversation.   
  
Akane stepped back away from Ranma slightly.  
  
"Where you goin? We ain't through yet."  
  
"What?" said Akane as she stepped back again in shock.  
  
"You heard me. I don't like repeating myself either."  
  
"Haven't you made enough of a mess?" snapped Akane angrily.  
  
"Quit complainin, ain't even no property damage yet."  
  
"I don't want to fight you!" screamed the girl as she blew her top and screamed at the top of her lungs.  
  
"Yeah, now," he replied as he rushed up to her face and poked her in the forehead. She fell on her rear and squeaked in pain as she hit the ground.  
  
"Keep your temper under control."  
  
"What the? You bastard! You've got no room to talk!"  
  
"Maybe, maybe not."  
  
Akane seethed in anger as the boy walked calmly towards the building. Just as he reached the inside, the sky opened up and it began to rain.  
  
The student body quickly followed Ranma's example.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Kasumi Tendo opened the door to the guestroom with a mop and broom. She stooped down to pick up the bucket she had placed down to enter.   
  
She gasped at the sight she beheld. The walls were covered in firearms. They hung from racks that were propped up inside the room. She spotted several progressively larger models of shotgun to her right. "Oh my!" There were weapons she couldn't even begin to identify, and a few that looked extremely high tech. Over in the corner was a small case with several large knives inside.  
  
She dropped the bucket onto the floor as she spotted the rocket launchers. "Oh dear!" Every weapon had a few rounds or clips resting in large shelves just behind where the weapons were hanging. The whole setup left about six feet of sleeping space. The window was the only open space on the wall in the room, allowing light to enter from outside.   
  
"Perhaps I should just ask Ranma to make sure this room stays clean from now on?" She looked down and sighed as she realized she had to mop before she left. Luckily, the mess wasn't that big. Just a little splash over as the bucket had landed right side up and not tipped.   
  
She paused though when she noticed a white slip of paper hanging off of one of the racks. It was held on with tape. "Heard about where yer goin already, that place puts out some nice babes. Thought you might want yer crap. Enjoy, gave you a few extra rounds ta go with it. Duke."  
  
"Oh. Well that was very nice of him then," said Kasumi as she hummed cheerfully and cleaned her mess up.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma stood at the front of the class. The teacher looked like a complete wuss standing next to him, and he knew it. His face was deep into the boy's file as he read it.  
  
"Students, this is Ranma Saotome. I should note the side note here. "If you call him that, he'll probably kill you."   
  
"What he said," agreed the boy stonily.  
  
The class desks creaked collectively as they sat back with wide eyes.  
  
Akane was the only exception, she grumbled irritably and glared at him. She had a large grass stain on the back of her skirt now, and Kasumi was going to be upset with her for it. It was all his fault.   
  
Ranma merely walked to his desk and sat down.  
  
"Where's your sister?" asked Ranma as he turned his head to look at Akane.  
  
"She's in her own class moron," she replied as she frowned directly at him.  
  
"Nah, she started running as soon as she saw me put up my fists. She was on the second floor. Never saw her come out, didn't see her on the way back either."  
  
"We went by her class, maybe she got there first?" snorted Akane.   
  
"She wasn't sitting there when I looked," replied Ranma.  
  
"Um, excuse me?" said the Teacher. Everyone was engrossed in the conversation that was going on. The poor teacher couldn't believe this boy had the balls to be doing it right in front of him.  
  
"What do you mean?" said Akane as she stared at him with what was now a fearful frown.  
  
"What is going on here!?" snapped the teacher.  
  
"Ain't sure yet," replied Ranma calmly as he adjusted his glasses and looked at him.  
  
"Take those ridiculous things off!" snapped the teacher.  
  
"No," said Ranma calmly.  
  
Akane gasped, she could see the other side of the lenses from the angle she was at. The image inside was not just what was going on in front of him. There was a complicated looking scope of some kind, tiny buttons lined the rim around the lenses. She could only guess what they did. "Wha?"  
  
Just before things could heat up any more, a new voice rang out over the crowd. "Ranma Saotome! I would have words with you!"  
  
Ranma cracked his knuckles and stood up. "Okay."  
  
"What the hell are you doing? I'm in the middle of a class here!" snapped the teacher.  
  
"So teach it," replied Ranma calmly as he pushed through the door.  
  
"I see," said the teacher as he narrowed his eyes and frowned.  
  
Akane jumped from her chair. "Hey! Wait! What about..."  
  
"Akane Tendo! Sit down!" snapped the teacher as his patience finally vanished.   
  
"What?" said the girl as she glared at him. He quickly cowered behind his desk. "I'm going to check on my sister!" She turned and rushed out the door after the boy.  
  
+++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma stood across from Kuno in the front courtyard. Neither said a word, Ranma was about eight feet closer to the front gates than Kuno was as they faced off in the main pathway.   
  
"You say that you will meet my steel with steel? If I face you with such a weapon, it is to be a match of death."  
  
"You start wavin a sword around, and I'll answer with lead," replied Ranma. He didn't seem particularly interested in what was going on.  
  
"I see, then perhaps another contest?"  
  
"Contest?" said Ranma as he arched his eyebrows.  
  
"I must prove my strength to Akane Tendo, show her that I am your better. Show her that no man may stand against my might!"  
  
"This is over a chick?" asked Ranma as the corners of his lips turned down slightly. "One stupid babe?"  
  
Kuno looked at him for a moment and frowned as well. "Akane Tendo is perfection in a woman."  
  
"Well, whatever floats your boat buddy. What the hell does this have to do with me?"  
  
"You were with her today when she passed through the gates. Tell me what your relationship to her is?" Kuno pointed his bokken at Ranma in a rather dramatic fashion.  
  
"Who do you think you're pointin that thing at?" said Ranma as he turned his body to face the boy completely.  
  
"Merely to drive home my feelings for Akane Tendo," offered Kuno with an unusual calm.  
  
"Yeah, whatever," said Ranma as he brushed it aside.  
  
"You seem to be a strong man, such as I," replied Kuno.  
  
Ranma was growing irritated with this. "Is there a point in here?"  
  
"You still have not named your relationship with Akane Tendo."  
  
"My old man arranged a marriage to her family," replied Ranma with a shrug. "I gotta marry one of em supposedly. Pain in the ass really."  
  
Kuno's jaw dropped like a lead weight. "You fiend!"   
  
Ranma had no response to this.  
  
"You dare try to pressure Akane Tendo into marriage? She is destined to be my one true flower of..."  
  
"I don't think she likes you actually," replied Ranma with a small shrug.  
  
"Bah! You do not understand the simplicity of a woman's heart. She desires only me! I know this to be true!"  
  
"Yer nuts," said Ranma as he calmly lit a cigarette.   
  
"You cannot smoke upon the hallowed grounds of Furinkan High!"  
  
"This place is a heap," snorted Ranma as he glanced around. "This is the most out of date school I've ever seen. Then again, I been around quite a bit."  
  
"You mock me sir!" cried Kuno. He rushed forward and drew his bokken.   
  
Ranma merely jabbed him in the face with the butt of his weapon as it was once again popped out of the bag. He hadn't put it down since he had arrived. "You can just stay there for a while. I gotta go figure out who was stupid enough to try and steal my chick."  
  
"Ow dare noo speak off Akane Nendo dat vay!" cried Kuno as he stopped nursing his bleeding nostril for a moment.  
  
"I'm talkin about that other chick," replied Ranma as he started to walk away. "Nabitchi or whatever."  
  
Kuno merely looked forward with wide eyes. "Nabiki Tendo? I do not understand...why would? You! Halt, if for a brief moment. You are engaged to Nabiki Tendo?"  
  
Ranma paused his stride for a moment and turned his head slightly. He still had the cigarette in his mouth as he spoke. "Sure. I guess she is."  
  
"I see," said Kuno as he stood up and tried to look as regal as his bloody nose would allow. He calmly walked towards the building and inside one of the side doors that led to the nurse's station.  
  
Ranma merely walked to the front door and reached inside his bag. He pulled out a harness that fit around his chest. It had two holsters and about ten clips of ammunition attached to it. He pulled the weapons out and holstered them before dropping the bag to the ground. "Wonder who decided to visit?"  
  
He kicked the double doors open and strode into the main hall, taking drags off his cigarette as he walked right through the hall as if he was strolling down the street.  
  
No one appeared outside of the rooms to stop him, though there were faces crowding the windows of almost every door.   
  
Ranma smirked as he turned to the door that led into the basement. "Knock, knock."  
  
He leaned a little closer to the door and put his hand up to his mouth. "Psst, you're supposed to say who's there."  
  
A loud bang sounded behind the door and Ranma rolled aside as wood splintered the hallway behind him. There was the sound of a shell being ejected with a pump from the other side of the door.   
  
He pushed himself up to his feet immediately mid roll and pulled both of his weapons to the ready. "Hope you got a little more than that pal."  
  
Screams started from the classrooms as students went into a panic. The hallway remained clear though as they backed further into the rooms. Ranma unloaded several rounds into the giant manlike creature that emerged from the door. It was an anthropomorphic creature, a man crossed with a pig. It was also wearing what looked like a police officer's uniform from America.  
  
Akane turned into the hallway in a dead run. She screeched to a halt and barely avoided hitting the lockers. "Where is my sister?" she cried as she stared at Ranma.   
  
"Hmmm, the new model," said Ranma as he picked up the fallen shotgun from the dead thing's grip.  
  
"What the hell is that?" cried the girl as she suddenly realized that something wasn't right.  
  
"Just a pig, hired help."  
  
"Pig?" muttered Akane fearfully as she stared at it. "What's going on here? Where's Nabiki?"  
  
"My guess is down there," said Ranma as he pointed at the stairs on the other side of the open door.  
  
"Are there more of these things?" said the girl as she stared at it in horror.  
  
"Yup. Never seen just one," said Ranma calmly as he looked into the poorly lit stairwell.  
  
"I'm going with you!" cried Akane as he started to step forward.  
  
"You'll only get in the way," he replied simply as he ignored her.  
  
"You can't stop me from following you," said the girl as she started after him.  
  
She stopped dead in her tracks as she found herself with the barrel of the shotgun stuck into her forehead. She simply looked up nervously at it. "What are you doing?"  
  
"Well, I figure we might as well get this over with. If you come down those stairs with me, yer gonna get shot anyway."  
  
Akane frowned at him and stared him down as hard as she could muster. "You said my sister was down there."  
  
"Probably, gotta wonder who would know about this already though."  
  
"You were expecting this?" gasped Akane in shock.  
  
"Blame your old man and mine, it was their idea," replied the boy as he glanced down at her for a moment.   
  
Akane didn't like the sound of that, but she couldn't really argue with him at the moment. "Why are we standing here?" she snapped as she pushed the barrel of the weapon aside and rushed by him.  
  
He stopped her by grabbing the back of her shirt. "Careful, they have guns." He held the weapon up in front of his face as he walked forward.   
  
Akane blushed as she walked directly behind him. "Right."  
  
The pair found themselves in a large storage room. There were desks and chairs stacked up with sports equipment. There were also props for student plays, boxes of seasonal decorations, and a few larger teachers' desks.   
  
Ranma merely frowned as he glanced around the room.  
  
Akane gasped as she found herself being violently pulled to the ground as the sound of gunfire exploded in the room. The roar died down and she gasped as she realized she wasn't hurt. Ranma had a firm grip on her wrist to keep her from getting up in her dazed state. She recovered a bit and glanced around. They were behind a large wooden table near the entrance. The wood was fairly heavy, but there were still a few holes in it from the exchange.   
  
Ranma was turned against the legs with his shotgun held in an upright position. "Behind the big desk near the other wall."  
  
"What?" muttered the girl.   
  
"That's where they are," he replied simply as he popped a shell out of the shotgun. "Two of em."  
  
Akane nodded slowly as she realized that she could hear a low grunting at the moment.  
  
Ranma casually tossed the shell over his shoulder and into the middle of the room.  
  
"What are you doing?" hissed Akane.  
  
Ranma merely jumped up suddenly and fired a single shot. Two reports sounded as the other shell went off on the ground. Loud squeals of pain filled the room suddenly.  
  
"That."  
  
Akane stood up and followed after Ranma as he calmly exited their cover. He walked over to an upright teacher's desk. The bottom was open, with a thin layer of metal across the front. There was a pool of blood forming around the bottom now.  
  
Ranma raised his weapon into a firing position and jumped on top of the desk. He fired two shots and the squealing stopped. He casually jumped down and picked up the two weapons that were now strewn on the floor. One was another shotgun, and the other was a small submachine gun.  
  
He tossed Akane the shotgun. The girl almost dropped it in shocked revulsion.   
  
"You wanna keep going, you keep it."  
  
She frowned at him deeply. "How do I use this stupid thing?"  
  
Ranma stood up and took it back. He cocked the weapon and looked it over quickly. "I'll show you." He picked it up and cocked it. A shell flew out of the chamber. "Push a shell in like that. Point and squeeze the trigger. Careful, it kicks hard. You've got six rounds." He placed the discarded shell back in. "It jams sometimes, so stay back even though you've got it. I don't want to waste time teaching you how to clear it right now. They know we know about them now."  
  
Akane nodded seriously and took the weapon back. "All right."  
  
++++++++++++++++++  
  
Nabiki was still struggling against her captors. Two giant monsters had snagged her out of the back of a crowd in the confusion after the commotion outside at the beginning of the day. She was terrified by the gigantic pigs who kept her arms in a firm grip as they held her in the middle of a room with no one else in it. All they were doing was holding her and she didn't want to risk pissing them off too much. Simply standing there and taking it was a bit below her dignity and she pulled at their grip weakly, just enough to make holding her still actual work.   
  
She doubted if they could speak at all. A few grunts of annoyance had been the only sound she'd heard from either one. She did have some idea about what was going on. She was waiting on someone.  
  
After what seemed like hours the door in the back of the room opened and she froze.   
  
It was some sort of armor. Black polished metal that stood almost eight feet tall. It was easily four feet wide and broke the doorway apart to accommodate its girth simply by walking through it. "Ah. Nabiki Tendo I presume?" It turned its head to look at her. The voice was not mechanical and she realized that she could see his face hidden behind a dark tinted bubble of glass. The things robotic hands reached out and plucked her from the ground around her waist and pulled her up to it for a closer view. The glass slid up and revealed a serious looking man with a yellow and black bandana. Small screens surrounded the area around his face with all sorts of technical data. The largest one in the front she recognized as a global tracking system. A whirring sound from just beside her head forced her attention to what appeared to be a chain gun that was extending from the right wrist. The left wrist had three large holes with missiles inside of them.   
  
Nabiki Tendo seemed to realize just how bad her position was. "What do you want?" She felt incredibly small as the man turned off the weapon and it slowly spun to a stop.  
  
"I want Ranma Saotome. You're alive because you're bait. It doesn't really matter if you're going to marry him or not. I'm sure he'll come after you anyway. You've got roaming eyes, I'm afraid he doesn't like smart women. I'll tell you this much, if holding you is too much of a problem, I'll gladly rid him of his obligation to your family. I'm not just talking about you either."  
  
One of the pigs rushed into the room gasping for breath hoarsely. It grunted and pointed back behind its head.   
  
"Heh. He's coming," said the man as he tossed her aside carelessly. His visor slid back into place and he turned towards the next door. "Prepare the Technobots. We've got a long day ahead of us."  
  
The thing grunted and saluted his master.   
  
"Tie her up and prepare her for execution. When he comes through here, shoot her."  
  
"No!" cried Nabiki as she tried to scramble to her feet. The two pigs who had been holding her chuckled as one of them pulled rope from his utility belt. The other one cocked its shotgun and glared at her. She couldn't outrun that weapon. The only other object in the room was a table.  
  
"The harder you fight, the more they'll enjoy killing you. I suggest you cooperate and hope for the best." The thing crashed through the next door and pretty much destroyed any doorway in his way as he turned into the hallways of the basement.   
  
She'd had no idea the place was this large underground. There was no way a school needed this much of whatever the hell some of the machines she'd seen did. The things tightened the ropes around her wrists and started on her feet. She growled under her breath as one of them gave her a light but painful kick in the stomach as they stood up and left her lying there. The other simply cocked his shotgun and stood over her watching the door. The other one was guarding the rear entrance with its own weapon. "How the hell are you gonna get out of this one Tendo?"  
  
++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma and Akane were walking down the middle of a dark cement hallway. Pipes periodically lined the walls and occasionally had to be stepped around. Akane didn't like where she was, Ranma didn't seem to care. Some of the pipes had large warning labels on them and moisture dripped from others. It gave the path a sort of wet stench to it. It seemed to stretch out for miles before them. "What is this place?" asked the girl as she gripped the weapon nervously.  
  
Ranma glanced around he was strolling almost casually and puffing on a cigarette. "Something's going on here. This is a bit beyond the school board's budget for the century."  
  
"What do you mean? Someone built something under Furinkan? Why?" muttered Akane dumbly.  
  
"This is a bit much for a trap, even for some of the people I know. We'll find out more soon enough. I find these guys like to talk a lot when you meet them. Maybe I'll let him finish before I shoot him, if it's interestin enough."  
  
"Ape," grumbled Akane irritably. "I hate this thing." She stared at the weapon in her hands but didn't loosen her grip on it.  
  
"The art of the gun is a difficult path," said Ranma with a small shrug.  
  
"You call this art? Anyone can..."  
  
"Anyone can kill with a sword, or a car, or explosives, or..."  
  
"Not this easily," growled the girl as she glared at him.   
  
"Maybe you're right. Just because something is easy to use, doesn't mean it's easy to master. The Way of the Gun is as much a martial art as Anything Goes."  
  
"What? That's crazy!" snapped the girl. Ranma hadn't even twitched an eyebrow for the entire conversation.  
  
"You'd better listen up. I don't have time to take you by the hand and carry you back to where we started. Going back now isn't safe. They know we're here and they're coming for us. This little pause is nothing but the calm before the storm kid." He actually grinned at her as she stared at him blankly and blinked. He pulled one of the handguns out from behind his back and slung the shotgun over his shoulder in the same motion and pointed it down the empty hallway. "You've got to become one with it. It is an extension of you, a limb of its own. You must know where your shots will land, before you squeeze the trigger, it must react as quickly as you can. When you get there, you will understand."  
  
"I'll never understand this crap!" she snarled at him.   
  
"Well. I suppose it's been nice knowing you then," replied the boy as he fired his weapon twice. The sound of metal twisting and a loud crash turned her attention towards her right. A large silver robot with a single wheel and two clamps for arms crashed into the ground and started shooting sparks out the holes in its back. The head had a slowly fading red light in its center.  
  
Akane screamed and flinched as she wheeled around on her heels to glare at him. "What the hell are you doing?"  
  
"It's time to run," said the boy calmly as he tossed his cigarette on the ground. "We don't have much ammo and I hate not having explosives on me."  
  
She turned her head and stared at what was coming. Dozens of the robots were bearing down on them, and there were maybe two more with clam like hands. The others had automatic weapons on either arm. She could see one or two with barrels as big around as her leg on one arm.  
  
"What are those things?" gasped Akane as she struggled to keep up with him.  
  
"Technobots. I haven't seen them in years," muttered Ranma angrily.  
  
"What's going on?" cried the girl in terror as bullets started bouncing around raining pieces of cement down on them from above.  
  
Ranma didn't answer and pulled her arm as he ducked into a small corner and held one of his handguns just outside it.  
  
"What the hell are you doing?" screamed the girl as she found herself pressed between the wall and his chest.   
  
"Too much traffic," he replied as the handgun reported. A huge ball of flame roared into the hallway as one of the pipes exploded and sent flaming debris bouncing down the hallway past them. Ranma backed away and walked into the hallway with both weapons held ready in opposite directions. He turned them both down the open hallway when he noticed the path was blocked by a few tons of concrete. "Much better. The walls are thicker than I'd thought."  
  
The girl coughed a she waved some of the huge cloud of smoke and dust out of her face and staggered out of their cover. "You could have killed us both!"  
  
"Maybe," he replied calmly. "The hallway ends just ahead. We need to find out what this place is."  
  
"What about my sister?" snarled Akane angrily.  
  
"When we find out who's behind this, we'll find your sister. I think this is some idiot's idea of a trap."  
  
"All of this?" said the girl as she simply stood there with her mouth open.  
  
"Nah. Probably just bad luck. Having me going to school right over your secret base could be messy."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Tatewaki Kuno glared at the thing that had dared intrude upon the hallowed halls of Furinkan High. Unfortunately, he could do little more than that, as it was armed with a shotgun. It grunted and started waving the girls across the room towards it, pointing them out into the hallway with its weapon.   
  
They could hear them screaming in the hallway as they found themselves herded away in mass.   
  
"I cannot stand for this!" screamed Kuno as he lunged out of his seat and swiftly drew his wooden blade. The animal never knew what hit it and fell to the ground. Kuno stared out into the hallway and glared at the boys in his class. "You intend to stand like cowards while these things spirit our women away? Cowards! I shall stand and fight!" He raised his sword over his head and put it through the ceiling tile. A piece of it remained stuck on the end of the blade as he hung it across his shoulder. "Fear not fair maidens of Furninkan. I, Tatewaki Kuno shall come to your aide!"  
  
None of the other boys moved as he dashed out the door.  
  
"Maybe he'll get himself killed."  
  
"We can only hope."  
  
"Man. I'm gonna miss Hitomi, she put out."  
  
Several boys in the class nodded in agreement.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"How our the plans proceeding?"  
  
"Two thousand women. I'll have your order ready. Just make sure you keep your end of the bargain."   
  
"Hibiki. Do not fail me."  
  
The man growled angrily in response to that and shut down the transmission. "Me? Fail?" His eyes filled with rage as he thrust his mech's arms outward smashing the walls and ceiling around him and sending debris blasting in every direction.   
  
Two higher-ranking pig cops stood behind him and backed away fearfully as he slowly turned towards them. "Get the trucks loaded and ready. If you happen to pick up a few extra, well we'll just call it a bonus."  
  
The things grunted sharply and saluted him before rushing away grunting and squealing noisily.  
  
He hated that sound, he had no idea why. It bothered him on a level even he couldn't understand. Yet his superiors insisted on their use. "Worthless, stupid creatures."  
  
"Ranma Saotome, soon, because of me, you will see hell."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Explosions on the surface of the planet below burned brightly. Even in the void of space, the black and orange balls of flame and thick black clouds of smoke were clearly visible.   
  
Ryoga Hibiki stared from the void of space, a single pane of glass separating him from the airless nothing. "It's beautiful."  
  
"Yes," said a slightly mechanical sounding voice from behind him. A steel claw rested on his shoulder. "Only in chaos does humanity show its true destructive beauty. That is humanity's power, its purpose."  
  
"Dr. Proton. Why did you take me with you?"  
  
"I wanted to create a distraction once that brat Nukem started carrying around became an annoyance. Didn't take long, the annoying little runt. You were merely the best choice genetically, the closest match I could find to his potential. It did not hurt that I might need an Heir one day." The old man seethed angrily as he stared hatefully at the planet's surface. "This is only the beginning. No one can stop me now boy, not even him."  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ryoga frowned as the orange light of his readout screen in front of him bathed his face in a pale glow. "You were wrong. Always wrong, but oddly enough, only when it really counted." He smirked to himself and revved the mini-gun on his arm impatiently. "Hurry up Ranma. I'm getting tired of waiting."  
  
He paused as he came to a split in the hallway, one to the left and another to his right. He glanced down at his screen and saw a small arrow pointing to his left. He turned right and a flashing red light started inside the suite. He growled angrily as he continued to turn in place until the light turned green. He started forward again and stomped away.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma and Akane walked into a large room filled with what appeared to be holding pens. Nothing more than cages with cloth laid out on the ground in each one.   
  
"What is this place?"  
  
"Holding pens. I don't think they've been used yet," replied Ranma as he looked around the room. It was very dark, but he'd yet to remove his sunglasses.   
  
"What can you see?" she asked him as she clutched at the shotgun nervously.   
  
"Everything," he replied simply. "Nothing to see here really." He fired two shots behind them without looking back and a loud squeal sounded as something hit the ground.  
  
Akane jumped and screamed as she turned around.   
  
"Relax, it was just one. His friends will be showing up soon though."  
  
"I thought you said you'd never seen just one?"  
  
"First time for everything," replied the boy as he continued through the room. "Door is this way."  
  
"Where are we going anyway?" muttered the girl as she jogged up directly behind him.   
  
"Wherever that door takes us," he replied calmly. He pushed it open and the girl behind him gasped.  
  
"I was wondering when you guys were gonna show up," said Ranma as no less than twenty of the pig things stood around the door with a weapon pointing at them.   
  
"Oh, shit," muttered Akane when the boy cocked his shotgun. She dove behind the wall as he simply strolled into the room.   
  
"Who wants to take the first shot?" The things all stepped away from him.   
  
A loud clang sounded just behind him and the ground shook under his soles slightly. "What the?"  
  
Three technobots landed from a ledge above the door once he'd gotten far enough into the room. "Fuck."  
  
A resounding boom filled the room and one of the robot's head fell off. It fell forward slowly and slid across the ground for a short way after it landed. Ranma was quick to roll as the pig things scattered and stood to his feet with the rocket launcher the machine had been carrying resting on his shoulder. "Never thought she'd be the one to shoot first."  
  
Akane was still picking herself up from the ground with the smoking shotgun being held shakily in her grip in the other room.   
  
Ranma shifted his head as one of the robot claws slashed by his left ear and fired a rocket towards a group of about seven pigs. He twisted around and fired his handgun into the machine's torso as he jumped back away from its falling body. He rolled on his side a few times and spun towards more gunfire that was directed at him.   
  
Akane was on her feet in the doorway watching the scene with a look of shocked awe on her face. The boy simply turned his torso sideways with his palm on the ground and fired another rocket towards the pigs that were shooting at him from around a corner just inside a hallway that led out of the room. Pieces of them flew everywhere as the round exploded against the opposite wall and consumed the opening in flame and debris.   
  
The remaining robot carved one of the few pigs left in two as it slashed its bladed arm at his position. The boy simply jumped up and over the strike while firing two shots into the thing's head. Before he landed he twisted his torso and killed the last two remaining pigs with two clean headshots before his feet touched the ground. The weapon was twirled around his finger as he hefted the rocket launcher upright in his other arm over his shoulder. "Cool. Ammo." He immediately began raiding the ground for weapons and ammo. He picked up and wiped the blood off of a forty five-millimeter semi automatic handgun. "Here."  
  
The girl caught it and nearly dropped it in disgust.   
  
"It's more reliable than the shotgun. Doesn't jam as easily. It's got a ten round clip on it too." He patted her shoulder as she looked at it. "Doesn't kick as much either."  
  
"You should have told me about that," she growled as she clenched the smaller weapon a little tighter. He caught the shotgun as she tried to drop it and grabbed her. She didn't have time to react as he hooked the shoulder strap across her torso and turned her towards the smoking hallway. "Keep it. You'll probably need it."  
  
The girl didn't like the sound of that. "How do I use this stupid thing?" she cried as she rushed after him again. He was already moving though the pieces of pig cop and down the hallway.  
  
"Come here and I'll show you," he replied stonily as he demonstrated the basic operation of the weapon with his own. "Same principal, make sure the safety is off or it won't fire."  
  
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" she muttered angrily as she glanced back at the mess he'd made.   
  
"You know I do. I told you to stay behind, but you didn't listen. The only path now is forward."  
  
She hung her head and glared at the ground angrily. "Why did I come?"  
  
"If you're going to cry, do it quietly. The sound travels real well and they can hear better than you can." He calmly lit a cigarette and continued his fast paced stride.   
  
"I'm not crying!"  
  
"You might be before this is over. Just thought I'd warn you."  
  
She seethed angrily at him for a moment and stomped.  
  
"Stop that, walk softly and stay behind me. They might have wall mines, I can see them and you can't."  
  
The girl blushed as her temper flared for a brief moment. She didn't like taking orders from him, but he knew about this sort of thing and she didn't have a clue.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Unhand these women at once foul creatures!" cried Kuno as he charged down the hall belting pig cops upside their heads with his bokkan as he rushed by them. Most of them were too surprised to realize what was happening and fell easily. The girls that filled the hallway screamed in fright as he charged through them towards his enemies.  
  
Unfortunately it was not to last. Kuno was thrown bodily to the ground as one of the creatures blasted his sword into splinters with a shotgun. The boy stared at the shattered remains of his blade dumbly for a moment. "You foul beast! How dare you defile my mighty blade this way!"  
  
The creature chuckled as it cocked the weapon in its hands and pointed it down at the boy.  
  
Unfortunately, there were around thirty angry girls in the hallway, and he was the only remaining guard. One of the girls directly behind him belted him across his scalp with a fire extinguisher. There was a great cheer as the girls started to pick up some of the dropped weapons. The one who had rescued Kuno smirked at him and shoved the fallen monster's weapon into his chest.  
  
"I cannot use this! I must find another blade!" he cried in protest. "Besides, its operation is impossibly complicated!"  
  
"Say, how do you use these things anyway?" asked one of the girls. Most of them had never even seen a real firearm before. There was a collective muttering within the crowd as the armed girls inspected the weapons with those around them. There were only eight shotguns to go around.   
  
"Look at this!" cried one of the other girls in horror as she leaned towards the windows. "It's not just the school!"  
  
An alarmed cry of horror filled the hallway. Kuno merely glared out the window angrily.   
  
Truckloads of women were being carted in from town. Strange vehicles were roaming the streets collecting them, most of them appeared to be light tanks of some sort, there were even a few airborne units buzzing about.  
  
"I must find another blade!"  
  
"What can we do? We don't know anything about guns!" cried one of the girls with a weapon in distress.   
  
An alarmed squeal from the end of the hallway caused the girls to jump as another of the creatures stumbled across them. The girl nearest to the end of the hallway screamed as she spun around. The barrel of the shotgun reported as she squeezed her eyes shut. She fumbled with it and accidentally ejected a cartridge as she stumbled back into three other girls. They all managed to keep her from falling and she blinked as she looked at it.  
  
"Oh! That's how it works!" she said cheerfully. "You just point it and squeeze this thing!"   
  
"How did you get this thing to come out?" asked one of the others as she picked up the spent shell.  
  
"I moved this thing," she said as she pointed out the cocking mechanism.   
  
"Wow! You're so smart Kyoko!" squealed one of her friends cheerfully.   
  
Kuno stared at the girls as they congratulated themselves. "Without my blade, these women are doomed. I must find another, but where?" He turned his eyes towards one of the girls and noticed that she was carrying a shotgun with her.   
  
"Fair maidens. I have a request."  
  
They all turned to look at him.  
  
"As much as it shames me to say, I must acquire another blade. I ask that you remain here to defend this position as best you can. To venture into that madness is suicide for women such as yourselves. I ask that you loan me one of these detestable weapons, so that I might be able to fight my way to the Kendo practice hall and go forth into combat."  
  
"Wow. I can almost respect that," said one of the girls as she handed him her shotgun and stepped back. "I mean, no one has ever called me a fair maiden, or a woman before."  
  
Most of the girls were in agreement with this. Kuno puffed up his chest and boldly marched off into combat by taking the stairwell downward.  
  
"Think he'll make it out of the building?" asked one of the girls.  
  
"I kind of doubt it. It's to bad too, that was kind of romantic," replied another. "I never knew Kuno had it in him."  
  
"How come he's the only boy here? Where's Jiro! My boyfriend should have come after me!"  
  
"Say. Where are our boyfriends anyway?"  
  
Several of the girls cocked the shotguns.  
  
"Let's go find them," said one of the girls who was armed. They all started walking back towards their classrooms, there was about four rooms worth of girls that had been rescued. Each group had an armed escort.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma puffed on his cigarette casually as he spun around a door and fired into the hallway at the creatures that were charging them. Various robots littered the ground around them along with the bodies of more of the pigs behind and in front of them.   
  
Akane was directly across from him leaning against a doorway in the room opposite him as he fired down the long hallway of rooms that extended in both directions. It was some sort of sleeping quarters. Someone had built an underground base under Furinkan.  
  
Ranma said they were about four stories underneath the building.  
  
The girl had her eyes closed as she tried to block out the horrible squeals of the things dying all around her. Ranma had weapons and ammunition hanging all over him, and she was content with what she had. She'd yet to use her weapons again.  
  
A loud squeal forced her to open her eyes. One of the pigs was charging her directly from behind them. "No!" It had managed to get quite close and was no more than eight feet in front of her and charging. She gritted her teeth firmly and her arms reacted almost instinctively as she raised the weapon and fired one clean shot. The creature's brain flew out of the back of its head and it simply slumped to the ground at her feet.  
  
Ranma glanced down at the thing and smirked. "Nice shot."  
  
"It wasn't armed," she muttered dumbly.  
  
"It's strong enough to rip your arms off barehanded. You did good," he replied stonily as he stepped out into the hallway again and fired off two more shots clearing their path. "Cool. More ammo for the machine guns," he said as he knelt down over one of the bodies and lifted a few clips from it. He calmly put his twin handguns away after reloading both of them. He had an Uzi in each hand a split second later and calmly slapped clips in both of them. "Looks like a few hundred rounds worth on the ground too. Reload your weapons. Take the clips that look like the one loaded in your weapon. I suggest you pick up a few more since they're lying around. I showed you how to get the clip out right?"  
  
She nodded and managed to do it relatively quickly. She ignored the other weapons and shifted a little uncomfortably with the shotgun on her shoulder. "I think I've got enough now."  
  
"Suit yourself. Don't come crying to me when you run out of ammo."  
  
"If I do I'll pick something else up then," she grumbled sourly.  
  
"There isn't always the opportunity. It's better to already have another ready." He picked up a sub-machine gun and thrust it into her chest. "This one has a strap too. Quit whining and take it."  
  
"I don't want it," she grumbled as she hooked the strap on.  
  
"So?" was the boy's reply as he started walking again.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Kasumi Tendo watched the chaos outside her home with a broomstick in her hands. She was sweeping the sidewalk in front of the home and watching as giant pig men rushed by armed with all sorts of weaponry.  
  
"Oh my. Maybe I should go inside?" she muttered to herself as she turned into the gate. "The streets aren't very safe lately."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma stepped into a large open room with several doors. It appeared to be some sort of mess hall. There were large metal picnic style tables bolted onto the floor in even spaces. It was a very large room and it had several exits.  
  
"Where are we?" muttered Akane.  
  
"Looks like we're in some sort of living quarters. This is a base of some kind, designed to hold prisoners, lots of them."  
  
"It's a jail?"  
  
"No. This is for slave trading," growled the boy as he scanned the area. "It's empty, come on."  
  
She followed after him as he walked through the middle of the room fearlessly. He didn't look particularly concerned with anything that might be lurking in the numerous shadows.  
  
A strange sound caught her attention and she glanced towards the source. It was a rhythmic thumping and whirring noise from the other side of one of the doors. "What's that?"  
  
"Sounds like we're having company for dinner," said Ranma calmly. "Take cover, it sounds big."  
  
The girl dashed away from him quickly and rushed up behind a table near the back of the room.  
  
Ranma merely turned to face the sound with both of his sub-machine guns pointed towards the door.  
  
The noise suddenly stopped and a whirring sound could be heard for the briefest of moments.  
  
"Oh shit," said the boy as he dove away as the door was reduced to shreds, along with all of the tables between the door and the opposite wall. He rolled onto his side and glanced up. The barrel of a chain-gun was turning slowly to a halt as it poked out the hole in the wall.   
  
"I was beginning to wonder what was taking you so long. I suppose your little friend has slowed you up a bit?"  
  
"I know that voice. Ryoga, you bastard, what the hell are you doing here?"  
  
"My job," he replied simply as his armor walked into the room and faced him.  
  
"Nice monkey suit," commented Ranma.  
  
"Thank you. I had it specially made just for you. I'm afraid I've got a contract to fill, and I can't have you getting in the way this time." He fired the chain-gun again and forced the boy to rush across the room to avoid the bullets. "Heh. I've got you now Saotome. You don't have any weapons that can penetrate this armor. You're doomed!" His laughter was quickly drowned out by the sound of his weapon reporting.   
  
Ranma dodged and jumped around the room, all of the tables were torn to shreds except the area where Akane was hidden. Ryoga knew of her, but she was too unimportant to bother with. Ranma was avoiding that area of the room on purpose.   
  
Ryoga growled angrily as the boy flipped his ponytail off of his shoulder. "You never learn do you Hibiki." He had hefted the rocket launcher over his shoulder.  
  
"What? Only Technobots can use..." He growled angrily as he realized that there were wires coming out of his target's watch that were plugged into the weapon. "I see. You're quite resourceful!"   
  
"Yeah," replied the ponytailed boy as he fired the weapon.  
  
Ryoga's mech shifted to the side and the rocket slammed into the wall sending a spray of flaming concrete across the room. He responded by firing a missile at his target. "Take this then!"  
  
Ranma twisted around the missile and fired two shots at it as it started to turn back towards him with his handgun. It exploded and tore into the remains of several tables. "You're too slow in that thing to catch me Hibiki."  
  
"I don't need speed to overpower you!" roared the boy angrily as he turned towards the hidden girl. His chest opened up revealing two more mini-guns hidden away.  
  
"Akane! Move!" called Ranma as he dove in front of the machine and fired off both of his handguns into the two new weapons.  
  
The girl screamed as she stood up and ran along the edge of the room. A shower of concrete littered the ground just behind her as Ryoga turned and continued to fire at her. She dove across the ground through one of the undamaged doors and slid across the ground in the kitchen as the pots and pans hanging over the various stoves and metal tables became riddled with holes. Finally, the shooting stopped and she slowly looked up at the remains of the room. "Wow," she muttered dumbly at the extent of the damage. The bottom half of a pot hit the ground a little to her right and she jumped slightly. "Ranma?" Her attention was back at the doorway once again. There was no sound from the other room for a long moment. She rushed up beside the door with her handgun held in front of her chest and leaned against the remains of the kitchen door. She could hear them both talking now.  
  
"So, Saotome. How have you been?"  
  
"Better than you lost boy. I'm surprised you managed to find me at all."  
  
"That shouldn't be a problem in the future. I've got access to the latest global tracking systems and I could pinpoint a sparrow anywhere on the planet if I wanted too."  
  
"That's nice to know," replied Ranma as he raised his handguns and started to unload a few rounds into the machine's chest.  
  
Ryoga laughed and continued to shift to face his opponent as he sidestepped across the room. "Pathetic."  
  
"Laugh this off lost boy," snorted Ranma as he dove forward suddenly and hit the ground in a rolling dive. He fired his shotgun directly into the thing's torso just before he rolled through its legs. As soon as he was past it, he was forced to roll sideways to avoid being crushed as the mech tumbled onto its back.  
  
"Damn!" growled Ryoga angrily.  
  
The boy calmly puffed on his cigarette as he aimed his rocket launcher down at the suit. "Bye."  
  
"You won't be rid of me so easily Saotome!" snapped Ryoga as two jets roared to life on his back. He was carried across the ground as the rocket the boy had fired at him exploded and just missed. The ponytailed boy arched his eyebrow as he watched the armored suit crash through another door and into a hallway. He lowered his weapons and flicked his cigarette away casually.   
  
"Come on out, Akane. He's gone."  
  
"What the hell was that?" she muttered nervously as she poked her head out of the kitchen.  
  
"Just a stupid power suit," he replied calmly. "He should know better than to try to use something that slow against me."  
  
"You know that guy?" gasped the girl in shock.  
  
"Sure. I used to kick his ass all the time. He worked for Dr. Proton back when me and Duke used to kick his ass a lot. Duke took the doc, and I took Ryoga. Wouldn't have been fair the other way around. Not that they didn't try to catch me on my own sometimes."  
  
"Like now?" she growled.  
  
"Naw. I had more explosives then, this sucks a little more. All I got now is one rocket launcher. This is the last time I ever go anywhere with no grenades."  
  
The girl hung her head and gave up. "Can we just go save my sister now?"  
  
"Yeah, sure," replied the boy as he started walking again.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ryoga Hibiki cursed as he stomped down the hallway. He had gotten his mech upright easily after he'd escaped and was walking away from the pair. "I need an edge, this thing is too slow. Ranma was right about that." He turned to look at his screen as his hands worked the controls that were at his fingertips. One of the pigs was looking at him dumbly.  
  
"Take that girl and bring her up to the rooftop. I'll be up shortly." Saotome's only real weakness was women. He hated to see them die. Especially pretty girls.  
  
  
  
It would take him the better part of twenty minutes to find the place, even with his tracking systems. Ranma would need to be slowed down, fortunately he had the manpower to do that. "Head off Saotome as well. Keep him away from the rooftop until I'm ready for him."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Tatewaki Kuno frowned as he looked down at the strange blade he had gripped in his hand. He was basically holding the shotgun like a sword with his finger over the trigger. As he belted the pigs over their heads he was cocking the weapon accidentally. Well, at first, but after a few swings he figured out how to make it work every time.   
  
As it was he could swing his mighty enchanted blade and send one of the magical fire bursts towards his enemies. When one of the enchanted blades ran out, after about eight shots or so, he would acquire another one from one of the fallen pigs.  
  
"This mighty Excalibur shall carry me forth into victory!" he cried as he promptly forgot about the Kendo hall and rushed outside the gates of Furinkan into the streets. "Surely such a mighty blade is truly worthy of Tatewaki Kuno! Have at thee villain!"  
  
Groups of women were watching the insane man charge their captors wielding a shotgun like a samurai sword at the pig things.  
  
More than a few of them were shocked at how successful he was at killing them. Once the weapon ran out of ammunition, it was quite useful as a blunt instrument. Kuno was quite skilled at both using, and being a blunt instrument.  
  
"Go my fair maidens! You are free of your captors! I shall find the vile sorcerer that has dared defiled such beautiful maidens! Fear not!" He rushed off to bravely battle evil leaving a large group of dumbstruck women in his wake.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Duke Nukem was watching television in a bar. He had a beer in front of him and three women sitting on his lap. There were also no less than ten dead pigs lying around the barroom floor. "This news stuff is boring. Put on some sports!" he called to the bartender.  
  
"It's on every channel," replied the man calmly as he continued to clean a glass. "We're being invaded again in case you didn't notice. Speaking of that, why are you still here?"  
  
"You call this an invasion? Let the kid handle it, he's big enough, and he's already in the middle of the mess. 'Sides, if the kid really needs help, I'll know. Ain't seen nothin but stupid pigs so far. Cops should be able to handle em by now. Useless wussies."  
  
The man merely nodded.  
  
The girls sitting on Duke's lap all thought it was something to giggle about and kissed him on the cheek.  
  
  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma kicked the pig in front of him right between the legs and sent him head first into the concrete ceiling hard enough to split his skull open. He was firing at two more in the stairwell just above them at the same time.  
  
The girl behind him was still crawling over bodies as they made their way up a long twisting stairwell. Another one rolled past her, forcing her to shift to the side slightly to avoid it. "How many of these things are there?"   
  
"Lots," he replied as he carefully turned to the next short stairwell. "Hibiki knows I'm coming after him, so he's sending these things after us to slow us down."  
  
The girl nodded. "My sister?"  
  
"She's probably with him. I hate to say it, but she may already be dead Akane."  
  
"What?"  
  
"We ain't found her yet, don't you go and get all emotional before we're sure."  
  
She growled slightly at this but nodded. He was right, they weren't sure. Still, she'd yet to even consider the possibility that Nabiki might already be dead.   
  
Ranma snorted at the look on her face and turned to walk up the stairwell again. He was forced to stop, but didn't seem even slightly ruffled by the huge mechanical arm that shot through the wall and grabbed for him. He calmly stepped back as it reached back to grab for him again.  
  
"Hey. Looks like we found Ryoga."  
  
It was the arm with missiles in it. Ranma dove back and grabbed Akane as one of them shot out of the thing's wrist and slammed into the concrete wall beside them. They both dove around the corner and rolled down the stairs just ahead of the flames. Once they reached the bottom, the flames stopped and vanished quickly away.  
  
"That was close," commented Ranma as he stood up and hefted the rocket launcher onto his shoulder again.   
  
"What are you doing?!" cried Akane as she realized what he was using. "Do you want this place to come down on top of us?"  
  
"It won't," he replied calmly as he stepped around the corner, aimed up at the thumping of the mech's feet and fired a rocket upwards towards the wall at the top.   
  
A huge cloud of dust erupted from the wall and filled the stairwell, along with a strong beam of sunlight. "Hmmm, we're above ground now," commented the boy.  
  
"Where are we?"  
  
"It ain't Furinkan, some other building? This place looks almost like an office." He was looking at one of the doors in the stairwell. They'd started running into them every few floors or so. The pigs would come charging through them occasionally, either from above or below. Ranma didn't seem to have much trouble eliminating them from either direction.  
  
"How can you see anything in this mess?" cried Akane after she coughed a bit. Her eyes were squinted and she was incredibly dirty. Her entire body and clothes was covered in a light gray film of dust.  
  
"Come on. We're getting close."  
  
"I was hoping to meet you a little higher up, but I suppose I'll have to deal with this," said Ryoga.  
  
Akane gasped as she dove around the corner away from the thing. It was standing in front of the hole they had made in the wall with the chain-gun pointed down at them both.  
  
Ranma's eyebrow arched as he looked up at him.  
  
The weapon spun at high speed and began to fire down towards the ponytailed boy. Ranma launched himself into the air and avoided the shots and debris as the stairwell was torn apart by the shots. He landed on the thing's arm as it fired and swept his leg into the bubble that covered the lost boy's face. It was torn away and bounced off the wall and onto the ground. Without missing a beat, Ranma punched Ryoga in the face and pushed off the arm as he pulled his shotgun off his back and fired another round at point blank range into the thing's chest. A small cut appeared on his cheek as one of the buckshot pellets ricocheted past him.   
  
Ryoga was sent tumbling back again, but this time there was no floor to catch him.  
  
Ranma landed on top of the thing's chest and punched the screens in front of the lost boy's face. He flipped several switches and shifted his head to avoid being grabbed by one of the mech's flailing arms. "See you around Hibiki." He jumped off quickly as the thing's jets roared to life.  
  
"No!" snarled Ryoga angrily as he shot out of the hole in the wall.  
  
Ranma poked his head out and watched the mech streak through the air. It split into two separate jets as some sort of emergency escape mechanism was fired off. The main body curved in the air away from the smaller jet that was attached to what appeared to be a person. The out of control mech twisted several times in the air and came down on top of the building, crashing into the rooftop and sending a loud boom echoing across the city outside. He was in a ten-story building near the edge of Nerima from the look of it. Akane frowned as she realized they were about three floors from the top.  
  
"Where are we?"  
  
"Looks like the inside of an office building. Probably bought up and used as cover for the base. We've been underground for a while now."  
  
The girl nodded as she realized she could see Furinkan a few miles into the distance.  
  
"Something's going on," she said to him.  
  
"Yeah. I don't think Hibiki is a big fish in this. He's just hired help for someone else. Slavers by the look of it."  
  
"Slavers?!" gasped Akane in horror. "Nabiki?"  
  
"Might be. I'll bet we'll find her at the top, with Ryoga."  
  
"But isn't he?"  
  
"Naw, he had an eject button," replied the boy as he continued to walk upwards. "Stay behind me, and when we reach the top find cover and wait. You'll just get in the way otherwise."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Nabiki growled as the boy landed with a jetpack on his shoulders. He shrugged it off as soon as his feet touched down and it clattered across the ground. Without saying a word he calmly walked up to where she was being held.  
  
The rooftop was a mess. The explosion of the mech had twisted the metal support beams of one of the corners into a spidery mess. Small and large chunks of wall now littered the ground. It was amazing she was still alive at all. Unfortunately, she was still tied up and under the vigilant guard of one of the pigs.  
  
She was covered in smudges of dirt and had a few cuts and bruises on her now. Most of it was from the explosion that had killed one of her captors.   
  
"You have done well. You get to leave before he arrives this time." He waved the remaining pig away calmly and pointed the handgun he had pulled from a holster on his side at the girl's head. It was one of two polished black semi-automatic weapons. The creature grunted and rushed off the edge of the rooftop. A parachute billowed out from its back as it fell away towards the ground.  
  
"Great," she muttered irritably. "Are you going to shoot me or not? I'm getting tired of having those things getting shoved into my face."  
  
"Don't worry Miss Tendo. When Ranma Saotome walks through that door, and he will at any moment. I'm going to put a nice hole right into the middle of your forehead. How does that sound?"  
  
She swallowed as she looked up at him. He was smiling, and it wasn't a pleasant thing to see.  
  
Ryoga merely turned his head towards the door and watched calmly as he waited.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma was standing in front of the last doorway. It would take them too the rooftop. "Hmm. A metal door."  
  
"Come on! Why are we standing here?" muttered Akane angrily from behind him.  
  
He glanced back at her and frowned. "Get back." He hefted the rocket launcher onto his shoulder and aimed at the doorway. "This might take a few seconds so keep quiet."  
  
She blinked as she realized that there was a lot of activity going on inside the boy's glasses. She could see all kinds of readouts in green and red flashing through what appeared to be two people. One of them had a weapon pointed at someone kneeling down in front of the door. "No!" she cried as she tried to rush by the boy.  
  
He fired the rocket and shoved her back around the corner once again.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ryoga cursed as the door shot off the hinges in a ball of flames. It slammed into his body sending him sprawling across the gravel surface of the rooftop. "Damn!" He shoved it off of him quickly and aimed towards where the Tendo girl was kneeling. She was already on her feet and rushing away.  
  
"No you don't!" screamed the lost boy angrily as he jumped to his feet and started to aim.  
  
"You should be more worried about where I'm pointing my weapon," said Ranma as he appeared in the doorway.  
  
Nabiki stopped suddenly as she realized who she was looking at. Akane slipped onto the rooftop just behind Ranma and started hiding behind the twisted remains of the roof and some of the other debris as she skirted around the edge of the battle trying to reach her sister. The older girl was more than a little surprised to see a handgun in her little sister's grip. "What the?" It almost made her forget that she had stopped running in plain sight. The sound of someone rolling across the ground behind her forced her to gasp and look back.  
  
Just in time to see Ryoga Hibiki grab the back of her neck and shove her between himself and Ranma. She stared forward at the boy who was living in her home as he frowned at them both. "Oh shit. I'm gonna die."   
  
"Let her go Hibiki," snarled Ranma angrily.  
  
"I think not. I'll use her as a shield. You won't kill her, and when I escape I'll get rid of her for you."  
  
"I can't let you escape Hibiki," growled Ranma as he searched for any shot he could take. Ryoga was quite skilled though and kept her directly in front of himself at all times.   
  
If there was one thing Ranma hated, it was a standoff. Hibiki had to get though the door behind him in order to escape, and he couldn't fire without killing Nabiki at the moment.   
  
Both of them simply stood off and waited. Neither one spoke as they both searched for any weakness in the other's current defenses.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane gasped as she tried to level the weapon. It was shaking badly as she stood on her perch over the battle. The wind blew her uniform in a rather dramatic way as she stood on the twisted remains of one of the steel supports that had been torn loose from the interior of the building during the battle. Ranma was pointing his weapon at the exposed Ryoga Hibiki just below her. Ryoga had Nabiki pulled up in front of him defensively and had his head directly behind her sister's. "You can't miss," screamed her mind as she flexed her trigger finger. "You can do this! You did it earlier!" she whispered to herself. Slowly she started to squeeze, but found herself unable to depress the trigger.   
  
Ryoga's head twitched just after she spoke. He growled and fired two shots towards Ranma. The boy dodged to the side and dove behind a piece of steel that had torn through the rooftop. His weapon was aimed at Akane and Nabiki was now between himself and her.  
  
The weapon in the girl's hand reported and her eyes went wide. She fell to her knees and dropped it to the ground.   
  
Hibiki was lying on the gravel surface of the roof with blood pouring out of his shoulder. He glared up at her angrily and reached for his weapon with his other hand. He froze as Ranma appeared over his head with his weapon pointed down at him. Nabiki was standing with her eyes staring up at her sister, she had watched the girl shift the weapon as the man had moved every so slightly to the right. "Wow." She glanced back over her shoulder and looked at the man below her, his eyes locked hatefully on her sister.   
  
Akane's eyes narrowed and she raised the weapon up again. She fired another shot that passed directly by her sister. The boy on the ground screamed in pain and reached for his weapon again as a small splatter of blood shot up from his leg. Ranma's weapon pointed at the boy's temple stopped him cold once again.  
  
"That's for kidnapping my sister!"  
  
Nabiki was frozen with both of her arms squeezed up tight against her chest. She looked up at her sister again and passed out cold on the ground.  
  
Ranma chuckled as he flipped the lost boy over forcefully and handcuffed his wrists with very heavy-duty bindings from his belt. "Who are you working for Hibiki?"  
  
"You know better than that Saotome. I'm afraid you'll just have to take me in and hope the police can get it out of me."  
  
"Yeah. That's what I figured." Ranma picked him up and forced him to his feet. He calmly walked over to the edge of the roof and shoved Ryoga forward off the side. "See you around then I guess." He had the lost boy dangling by his handcuffs off the edge.  
  
Ryoga kicked his feet angrily as he hung there. "It's an off planet contract. They need women for breeding."  
  
"Is that so?" snorted Ranma as he promptly let go of the chains and let him fall away. "Come on. You two are going home, and then I've got one hell of a mess to clean up. Where the hell is that lazy asshole Duke anyway? It's not like him to sit around while people steal our chicks."  
  
Akane was helping holding her sister's head in her lap and looked up at him for a moment. "Maybe he's out in the city somewhere?"  
  
"Nah. I'd be able to see the explosions from here if he was working now. I'm gonna have to go get him. That lazy jerk probably wants me to do all the work this time. Maybe I will, just to show him." He walked over and picked up Nabiki in a fireman's carry as he turned back towards the school.  
  
"What about him? Are you sure he's dead?" asked Akane as she looked towards the rooftop nervously.  
  
"Him? Nah. It'd take more than a fall like that to kill him. He's not happy though, probably broke both his legs at least. Those pigs'll cart him off before we get down there though. He'll be out of things for a week or so at least."  
  
"You let him live?" gasped Akane.  
  
"Yeah. He's my problem, I'll deal with him how I want."  
  
Ranma calmly carried the passed out girl into the stairwell again. "Come on. We need to get to ground level. He bent down to scoop up the jetpack and hefted it over his free shoulder as he walked through the door.  
  
"Wait you jerk! Wait up!" called Akane as she rushed after him.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Tatewaki Kuno was standing in front of the Tendo dojo with a somewhat surprised looking frown on his face. Kasumi Tendo was adding to a pile of about thirty dead pigs. There were a few smoking craters in the street with the remains of vehicles littering the ground. The eldest Tendo girl had brooms, mops, and a shotgun leaning against the outer wall of the dojo. One of the walls of the fence around the home was shattered in with a massive plume of black smoke rising into the air from the other side. "Ah, the fair Kasumi Tendo. It is agreeable to see you again."  
  
"Oh! Hello Kuno. Oh my! It's such a mess," she said cheerfully as she dusted off her hands. "It's going to take me hours to clean it all up!" She didn't look like it was something that was bothering her though.  
  
"What news have you of these foul creatures?" said Kuno as he rested his shotgun across his shoulder. He was on his twenty-first shotgun, having still not figured out that they could be reloaded.   
  
"I hope Ranma doesn't mind that I borrowed his things," fretted the eldest girl as she glanced over at the shotgun leaning against the wall. Kuno glanced down and noticed there were several more weapons lying against the wall as well. A small rocket launcher included. Not that he knew what they were anyway. "Akane and Nabiki are late getting home from school too."  
  
"That is most distressing news," said Kuno as he frowned. "Akane Tendo?! I must go and save my beloved!" He turned back towards the school without asking anything more.  
  
"Oh. Goodbye then," said Kasumi cheerfully.  
  
"Are they gone yet Kasumi dear?" asked Soun as he poked his head out of the gate nervously.  
  
"I think so father," said the girl cheerfully. "Do you really think Ranma won't mind?"  
  
"I'm sure he won't mind at all dear," muttered Soun nervously as he shied away from his eldest daughter.  
  
"Who could have known Tendo?" whispered Genma as he glanced over the wall hidden away from her.  
  
"That's enough Saotome!" growled Soun angrily. "My baby has turned into Rambo! Wahhhhhhhh!"  
  
Kasumi cheerfully ignored this as she scrubbed at the stubborn burn mark on the fence vigorously. "Oh dear. I think I might need to repaint this."  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
TBC... 


	3. Nuke 3

Ranma Saotome: The Atomic Kid  
  
Part 4  
  
'Cleanup!' Or 'Kasumi goes shopping!'  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma stared at the Tendo Dojo with a frown on his face. There were piles of dead pigs in the street around the home. The outer wall was destroyed, but not a single shingle of the house itself, or the dojo for that matter, was touched. He whistled as he strolled up to the home. He had a shotgun hefted over his shoulder and two bandoleers of ammunition slung across his chest. His sides and shoulders were covered in weapons of varying kinds. Everything from knives, too handguns, too submachine guns, too fully automatic weapons. He also had a rifle with a scope on it sitting on his shoulder.   
  
"What happened?" muttered Akane in shock. Her father was a much better martial artist than she could have imagined. It was the only explanation she could think of. She had Nabiki resting across her shoulder. The girl had a bandage tied around her right thigh and was supported by her sister. Akane had a few weapons hanging around her neck, but gripped the handgun she had used to shoot Ryoga firmly in her free hand.   
  
Nabiki had a handgun of her own, but nothing else. She looked tired and dirty, Ranma and Akane were both much cleaner than she was. "Home," she sound incredibly relieved. She dropped the weapon to the ground carelessly. It was obvious she had never welcomed the sight more.  
  
"This was a big gunfight. I'm surprised I missed it." He looked around the area as he walked into the remains of the gate. The dojo sign had a single bullet hole in the bottom corner now, but no other damage had been done to it. "Whoever was on this end of it slipped up a bit somewhere. There's a hole in the sign." He calmly walked around to the open back porch as the two girls inspected the tiny circle that went through the bottom corner of the dojo sign.   
  
"What do you mean Gunfight? I'll bet it was my dad! He probably beat them up or something..."  
  
They turned around the corner and stepped onto the back porch. The door was still wide open.  
  
Nabiki fell to the ground in a dead faint. Akane couldn't hold her up due to her own shock.   
  
Kasumi was sitting at the coffee table cleaning an M-60 back to the condition she had found it in. "Oh! You're back! I was growing worried! Um, I hope you don't mind Ranma..."  
  
"Mind?" inquired the boy. He was a little surprised, but didn't know the girl well enough to be completely shocked.   
  
"I borrowed some of your things. It was a horrible mess outside, I just had to clean it up a bit."  
  
"Sure. No problem, you look like you take care of the things you borrow. Feel free any time."  
  
"Thank you," she replied as she blushed a bit.   
  
"Where are these things? Didn't think Duke would make a delivery. I was gonna go get some of it now, and bring the rest tomorrow."  
  
"You should thank him," said Kasumi sweetly.  
  
Akane looked annoyed. "Where the hell is Dad?"  
  
"Aaaah! My baby!" Soun appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the girl. He pulled his daughter underneath the porch where he was hiding with a giant panda. He paused and swallowed hard as he found a handgun pressed against his throat.   
  
"What the hell are you doing down here? Get out! Nabiki needs help!" She quickly dragged the both of them out from underneath the building and into the yard. "Look at you! You should be ashamed of yourself."  
  
"Don't yell at Daddy! Please! He's had a very hard day!"  
  
"Hard day!" screamed his daughter in rage. "Look at me! Do I look like I've had a good day? Do I?!"  
  
Soun noticed his daughter was very heavily armed. If he was correct, the tube he could see poking from behind her was a rocket propelled grenade launcher. "You're absolutely right!" he stated quite firmly. With two of his daughters around, there was no way that anything was going to hurt him. He felt quite proud at that moment. "Really Saotome. It's silly to hide under the porch. After all, we have my girls to protect us now!"  
  
"Don't forget about my son!" said the Panda's sign. "He's the..."  
  
"Do it and I'll shoot you," said the boy calmly. He was inspecting the weapon Kasumi had put together. "Good job. You can have that one. I got a newer one today." He held the weapon up to show her.   
  
"Oh my!" said the girl in surprise. "I suppose I could keep it. I don't know where I'll put it though."  
  
"I'll give you a gun rack. I got a couple spares for new stuff I pick up."  
  
"What?!" screamed Akane. "Hey! You jerk! You can't just give my sister a machine gun!"  
  
"Take a look outside. She's earned it. You do what you want with what you've got hanging around your neck. I think you've already picked out your favorite though."  
  
The girl froze in place and slowly turned her eyes towards the handgun she was still gripping firmly in her hand.  
  
"He hangs out with Duke Nukem," said Genma's next sign diplomatically. He looked quite nervous around all the high powered weaponry. "It's so obvious, our children are perfect for each other! Don't you agree Tendo? I see no reason we can't get this silly wedding thing out of the way? Wouldn't you agree?" Genma went through several signs for all of this.   
  
Ranma snorted, the man was desperately clinging to some sort of script he had worked out with Soun for when they arrived home from school. It was upsetting Akane.   
  
Soun noticed his daughter fingering the strap to the rocket launcher. He shook his head violently and grabbed the panda before he could produce any of the other signs. "Not right now Saotome," he muttered as he glanced back at his daughter nervously.   
  
She was staring at them both. "Nabiki was shot in the leg, in case you care."  
  
Soun stared up at her in horror. "What?"  
  
"We were almost home when it happened. She's lucky to be alive, if Ranma hadn't spotted the sniper she would be."  
  
The girl was currently resting against the outside wall glaring at her father angrily. He seemed to realize what he'd done all at once and hung his head shamefully. Genma didn't look particularly pleased either, but it didn't seem to bother him much.   
  
Akane turned around on her heels and rushed over to help her sister into the home.  
  
"Nabiki! I didn't realize you were back yet!" gasped Kasumi. "I'm so relieved! Now I don't have to go out looking for you now that everyone else is here!"  
  
The middle Tendo smirked at her sister. "Hey. I always make it home in the end don't I?"  
  
"I really wouldn't know. We've never seen this much excitement," said the older girl as she took over for her little sister.   
  
Akane glanced back over her shoulder and realized that Nabiki was out of Kasumi's sight where she had fainted. She had no idea what to do now.  
  
Ranma Saotome stepped out of his room. His choice for dealing with the mess was quite evident. He had on a black leather jacket over his clothes and a heavy pair of combat boots on his feet. He had on blue jeans with a silver and gold radioactive symbol belt buckle. "Where is it?" he asked Kasumi. "I know he would have left it with the rest of this stuff. He doesn't care for it."  
  
"Behind the dojo. I found it about an hour ago," she said cheerfully.  
  
The boy hefted one of the many very large weapons over his shoulder in one arm. "I'm goin out. Might be a while."  
  
"You'd better come back!" said Genma's sign.  
  
He glanced over his shoulder at the man through his shades. "I'll be back."  
  
Akane groaned. "Are we done referencing old movies now? Can we just go?"  
  
"I'm surprised you know about that," responded the boy.  
  
"I have...a bit of a collection," muttered Kasumi with a guilty look about her. She had no idea why, but she just loved a good action movie. Her sisters put up with it surprisingly well. Not that she didn't like other things too.  
  
The boy arched his eyebrow at this and turned towards the door. "I guess you can come if ya want. I don't wanna hear no whining when I tell you to pick up weapons and reload."  
  
"You won't," she grumbled irritably as she crossed her arms and turned her head away from him.  
  
"You're having fun, admit it," he said as he walked out.  
  
"What about the dojo?" said the girl, as she seemed to reconsider.  
  
"Do you really think anything will get by your sister? Anything big enough to be a real danger is that way." He pointed pretty much straight down the street. "You wanna come you're on clean up then."  
  
"What? What the hell does that mean?" snapped the girl.  
  
"Follow my path, I'll be too fast for you to keep up. Clean up anything I miss. I won't be trying to kill everything in my path, and I won't leave anything behind you can't handle. You up for it?"  
  
"If you're so fast, how will I be able to follow you?" she growled irritably.  
  
They turned the corner in the yard to the dojo. The boy said nothing as the girl stopped walking and watched him go behind the structure. He came around the other side wheeling a motorcycle in front of him. It was a sport bike, and a custom one. She could see Machine gun ports and missiles in the nose. Various other weapons were probably hidden within the bike's many panels. She could see seams in the metal where some of them came out. Some of the slots were rather large.   
  
The boy was revving the engine and puffing on a cigarette. He seemed to be listening to the bike and made adjustments on a few of the dials. "Heh. He had to turn the speed down a little. Thought he could slip it past me by adjusting it back up. That hog of his is way too slow." Ranma neglected to mention that there was another Harley Davidson motorcycle parked behind the building as well. He knew it was a bit too much for Akane to handle just yet. She was far too clumsy on her feet to handle a bike. He'd seen her stumble quite a bit in the course of their journey. "That balance thing you've got right now." He revved the engine a bit more. "Don't worry about it so much. You'll grow out of it."  
  
She stared at him dumbly for a moment. Every time she'd stumbled during the trip home, usually over a small piece of debris or something, she would think about the problem she seemed to have. It frustrated her, and prevented her from furthering her skills. "Easy for you to say." He squealed away as she scowled at him.   
  
She briefly considered going off on her own, or perhaps not going at all. She was standing in the yard in front of a large hole in the fence. Ranma had chosen to leave through the hole and vanished into the streets.   
  
"I don't need to go. He doesn't need my help," she said to herself as she glared at the street. "Damn it. I've got to go now, he said he was going to leave things behind on purpose. That jerk." She stormed through the hole angrily. How was he going to tell her when to reload and pick up more weapons if he wasn't around anyway?   
  
  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Meanwhile, back at Furinkan...  
  
The boys cried as they found themselves trapped in the rooms with the returning girls. They were all huddled into the corners of their respective rooms as the girls glared at them. A few of them were still armed. Even more had picked up weapons they'd found lying around in Ranma and Kuno's wake.   
  
In one particular room, all the boys were tied up with ropes, and an angry girlfriend stood on her former boyfriend's neck with the barrel of the shotgun pressed against the back of his head.  
  
"You know, I had sex with you, and you left me to die."  
  
"Oh god," muttered the boy in horror.  
  
"I heard a rumor about Izumi a few months back, but I thought you were better than that. Do you have any idea who saved me?"  
  
"No," muttered the boy through his sobs.   
  
"The biggest idiot in the whole school, that's who." She conked him in the back of his head with the butt of the weapon and handed it to the next girl in line.   
  
She cocked it and strolled towards her cowering boyfriend, all of the other boys had cleared the area around him. "Traitors!"  
  
"Yeah. I'd noticed that," said the girl coolly.  
  
"Oh shit."  
  
Let's just say things were under control at Furinkan. After all, most of the building was one big collective cold shoulder. For once in his life, Hikaru Gosunkugi was greatly relieved that he did not have a girlfriend. He sat with the other nerds of the school in a lonely room with no girls. All of them had their heads buried deep in textbooks as their fellow men screamed in terror. No shots had gone off though. It looked like some of the girls just wanted to put a good scare into the others.   
  
He scratched his ear as a particularly pained cry echoed through the halls outside the room. Everyone shivered at the sound of it.   
  
"Hey. There'll be a ton of single girls when this is over. We might even have a chance to get a date!" cried one of the nerds as he had a sudden realization.  
  
He was silenced as several textbooks flew through the air and sent him to the ground.  
  
"Quiet you idiot! They'll hear you!" snapped one of the angry nerds.  
  
The large boy next to him nodded vigorously as he sucked on an inhaler greedily.   
  
Gosunkugi wasn't very frightened. Most of the girls were just sitting away from the boys glaring at them and giving them the cold shoulder. There were a few who were vicious enough to resort to violence, but they were the exception rather than the rule.   
  
In the back of the room sat a small group of more normal looking students who ignored the conversation and hid in their books the same as the nerds. They were merely fortunate enough to not be attached when everything had hit the fan. He glanced back at them for a moment and frowned. Most of them wouldn't be seen with a majority of the room normally.   
  
"School is over. Do you think it's safe to leave?" asked one of the nearby nerds who had yet to peer over the edge of his textbook.  
  
Gosunkugi shrugged. "I'm not going out there to find out."  
  
"Neither am I," agreed one of the other boys.  
  
Another pained scream echoed through the hallways and one of the boys near the front of the class fainted.   
  
"Where are all the teachers?" asked another boy as the group ignored it.   
  
"I dunno. I think they all ran away and went home," said one of the other boys.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma Saotome squealed to a halt in the middle of the road with his head turned down the ruined street to his right. It was a straight road that stretched for several blocks in either direction. "Well. I'm actually impressed."  
  
A few hundred yards away, Tatewaki Kuno, feared Blue Thunder of Furinkan High was actually making something of a name for himself. The pigtailed boy had found several skirmishes in front of him. He had thought it a bit odd that whoever it was only used a shotgun. It made a lot more sense now.   
  
The older boy was wielding a pair of automatic shotguns like swords. Ten of the pig creatures stood around him with various weapons.  
  
Rather than back away from the large group, Kuno moved in close and swung his two weapons around like swords. He cocked them by striking the creatures somewhere to knock them off balance and spun with his strikes firing at them as he faced them again. He used wide sweeping strikes as he fired and used the motion too keep them from kicking him back or off balance.   
  
The last two remaining animals were behind him side by side with weapons pointed dead at him. They reported and the boy flipped back over the shots and landed with both barrels pointed at their temples. He was untouched by the resulting mess. He paused long enough to glance around and survey his victory. He hooked both weapons like blades at his side through his belt. "Disgusting creatures."  
  
"Hey."  
  
He glanced back to see Ranma Saotome walking a bike up to him. He was covered in large weapons of all sorts. "Saotome."  
  
"How are things going?"  
  
"I am having little difficulty defeating my foes. Where is Akane Tendo? I was told she accompanied you." He didn't look particularly happy to see Ranma without her.  
  
"I dunno. Last I saw her was at her place. I dropped her sister off. She'll probably be along soon. She should be following after me." The boy touched his glasses and frowned. "You're not carrying any ammo. Need to borrow some? I don't have much need of a shotgun with all of this, but I've got a few shells I can lend you."  
  
"Shells?" inquired Kuno. "You know of these weapons?" He glanced down at the two guns and frowned a little. "They perplex me, but I find I am quite skilled at wielding them."  
  
"I'd noticed," responded Ranma dryly. Something was starting to add up in the back of his mind. He'd found several odd shotguns lying around the bodies he'd found. "You don't have to throw the old one away. You can put more shells into it so you can keep firing the same one." He held up a red plastic tube with a metal piece on the bottom. "They look like this." He lifted a shotgun off the ground and demonstrated removing and inserting shells to the older boy. "See." He cocked it and fired into the empty street behind him. "Like that."  
  
"Interesting," grumbled Kuno. He did not want to owe anything to the boy if he could help it. "Perhaps we could aid each other then? I seek to destroy the cause of this invasion."  
  
"That's the plan," said Ranma with a small nod. "I'm not sure I want to be near when you start that up again though. You haven't had much experience with a shotgun. It's not a sword, and you'll break it if you keep using it that way. I'd suggest getting a custom job done for ya. I could probably talk to some people for ya if ya want. It'd only cost around nine-thousand yen or so since it'd be through me."  
  
Kuno glanced down the road. "I have no real need of such a weapon. My blade is enough." He was looking at the weapons at his side quite intently as he said this.  
  
"By the time this is over, you'll be interested. Keep going, have fun. Rescue some babes and all that. I'll take care of the big fish. I'll get there faster with this." He patted the side of the bike and hopped back on. "I'm gonna meet up with the JSDF a few miles out. There's a forward base there, near the landing site."  
  
"Landing site?" inquired Kuno.   
  
"They're stealing women to take to another planet for breeding purposes. Human females are worth a lot, they can crossbreed with a lot of species."  
  
"FEINDS!" cried Kuno in horror.  
  
"Yeah. That's what guys like me are around for," replied the boy with a small shrug. "I ain't sure about you yet though. Maybe I'll find out before this is over?" He started the engine to the bike and revved the engine a few times. "See you around."  
  
Kuno stood alone in the road as the boy peeled out. "I see." Kuno understood very little about the world around him. It didn't really bother him much, as he was a complete idiot. He did know what Ranma was saying to him. He had to prove himself worthy of accompanying him on such a journey. He had to make his way through this, and perhaps then. This angered him; the lowborn fool had dared suggest he was unworthy of such a task. Tatewaki Kuno, unworthy? The very idea was downright stupid as far as he was concerned. That was saying a lot too. "Very well then! Ranma Saotome, I shall defeat this evil without your aid." He turned down the street and moved deeper into the city in a different direction.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Great." Akane had gotten herself pinned down behind the counter of a convenience store. She was watching her assailants, three pigs, move through the isles towards the register she was under. She glared up at them hatefully as they closed in slowly She kicked off her shoe and turned to face the counter on her back on the floor. She put her leg up under the counter and waited. Her eyes never left the round glass mirror on the corner above her. None of the creatures had noticed it yet. It was a good thing, because they were going to rush her, two from either side, and one over the front of the counter. She smirked as she saw the top of the pig's head appear just over the countertop. "Got ya." She fired both handguns into the two pigs that rushed up on either side of them and three reports sounded. She had used her toe to squeeze the trigger of the shotgun mounted under the counter. She frowned at it as she dusted herself off and stood up while replacing her shoe.  
  
She wasn't sure what she was doing out here. "You can come out now, they're dead."  
  
A few people slowly emerged from the cooler as she turned towards the door with a serious look about her. "Wait! You can't just leave us here!" cried a frightened looking woman. She had managed to escape capture by hiding with her coworkers when things had started to get bad.  
  
"Sorry. I can't stay, and you'd just get in my way." She felt terrible just leaving them there this way.  
  
She turned her head to look up and down the abandoned streets of Tokyo. Most of the people cowered inside the buildings. Occasionally she would pass a police officer's body. She'd even found a few JSDF bodies lying about. She had missed most of the action already though. Ranma had told her his path would be easy to follow, and he had meant it. He was moving in a twisted path towards the western end of town. She could see a path of destruction even the invasion itself couldn't match ahead of her. He was moving quickly. A large explosion sounded in the distance as a gigantic ball of flame rose into the sky about a mile or so away from her. "Great. I've got to go there I guess." She kicked something that jingled in front of one of the dead bodies in front of the store. There had been five of the creatures originally. Two had died trying to pin her down.   
  
She glanced down and saw a set of keys resting against the sole of her shoe. Her eyes turned back towards the area the animals had attacked her from. A short distance away, was a small vehicle about the size of a motorcycle. It had twin mounted machine guns just above a small clear plastic shield that protected the cockpit. It also didn't have wheels.   
  
She looked down at herself and sighed. She was covered in guns anyway. It didn't really matter if she broke a few more laws. It obviously belonged to the bad guys, but she was sure it was illegal anyway. "What the hell? I've probably already ruined my life." She jumped onto it and stared down at the controls. It looked a lot like a motorcycle on the outside, but the inside was more like a small plane. There were two flight sticks, and relatively few buttons. The triggers on the flight sticks probably controlled the weapons, but she wasn't really sure. She wasn't sure she'd be able to operate the damn thing period.   
  
She sighed and put the keys into the ignition. "What's the worst that could happen?" She almost stopped herself when she realized that she would probably end up dying in a ball of flames that crashed to the ground.  
  
She had to sit and build up her nerve for a few moments while she gripped the key firmly between her fingers in the ignition. "Those pig things are stupid. How hard could this be?" She started it up and the engines roared to life. The readout in front of her lit up and two colored digital bars seemed to fill up. Each one was labeled as fuel and ammo, and there was also a digital speedometer. She glanced down and noticed it was floating about three feet over the ground. She moved the controls slowly and experimentally. The window in front of her shattered as she squeezed off a few rounds. "Oops," she muttered sheepishly as she moved her finger away from the trigger a little.   
  
She was moving side to side and had jumped forward a bit as well as she fiddled with the controls. She had also figured out how to make it swing around on its axis. "Doesn't seem that hard." She seemed to realize that the two sticks worked together. One controlled movement and the other turned her around a fixed axis. "Weird." There were a few things on the heads up display in that was being projected onto the clear bubble in front of her as well. There were a few dials she didn't understand, and something that looked like a compass, but seemed to tell her where the ground was in relation to her. It had taken about four minutes for her to figure that out. The center console also had a throttle lever on it; she was cruising slowly just over the tops of the buildings as she adjusted herself to the transportation. She was starting to think she had most of it figured out. There were still a few more buttons she wasn't sure about, but it had a full tank, and only a few rounds were missing. There was a small digital readout sitting alone on the opposite side. It had the number twelve on it that hadn't changed since she started. It didn't seem to effect anything, and she'd yet to find a switch to change it.  
  
The girl found herself looking over the side of the ship towards the ground. "I hope I can figure out how to land this thing."  
  
She jumped in her seat as the radio she hadn't noticed yet squealed to life literally. The broken sound of pig noise crackled across the airwaves. "Shit." She found herself correcting the ship sharply to avoid hitting the side of one of the large skyscrapers. She was only about five stories over the city.  
  
She swerved back into place and cursed as two more ships like the one she was using started moving towards her in the distance. She could see them coming between a few of the buildings. They quickly turned onto the street she was flying over and headed straight for her side by side.  
  
She simply continued forward. "Shit." She jammed the throttle all the way forward, the street ahead of her was pretty straight, so she'd probably be all right.  
  
The results were immediate as she blasted forward at full speed. Both of the fighters shot past her without firing around. They were as surprised as she was by the maneuver. Both of the ships turned and blasted back after her. "Oh no! Now they're behind me!" she cried as she glanced back. Turning her head forward again taught her that she should watch where she was going more carefully. She pulled both sticks back all the way and shot up the side of the building in a vertical climb. She spun on her axis, her head passing close enough to the side of the building that she could have reached out and touched it. Bullets flew from underneath her, only one of the ships had survived long enough to chase her, its companion exploded as it slammed into the side after trying to mimic the maneuver.   
  
The girl screamed as bullets passed by her on either side. She stopped spinning and pulled back again, this time flying upside down over the top of the building just as she passed the tip of the largest antenna on top of the structure. She actually had to dip sideways a little to keep from getting clobbered by it.  
  
"Wow," she muttered as the other ship slammed into the antenna. It spun around a few times in the air out of control, but was not hit hard enough to really damage it. The girl scrunched her eyebrows together as she pulled the throttle back sharply and spun around on her axis, unloading the machine guns into the unfortunate ship. It exploded into a ball of flames. "Take that you jerk!" she screamed as she leaned over the front of the ship and shook her fist at it as it exploded.   
  
The rooftop below her suddenly became quite active, as several dozen of the pig creatures emerged onto the rooftop and began to fire at her with whatever they had.  
  
"No!" she cried as she flew around the outer edge of the building in a circle. She could see the monsters starting to form a ring around her. "What's this button do?" she muttered a she realized there was a button on the top of the flight stick as well. Two of them in fact, sparks flew off of the sides of her ship, but it hadn't been damaged really yet. Ranma had proven that small arms fire could take one of the ships down to her on the way to the dojo.   
  
She spun on her axis and tried the smaller one first. A small group of boxes appeared on her heads up over each of the pigs. It focused on one and turned it red. They were all grouping together to concentrate their fire on her. Lead was flying all around her and bounced off the still holding surface of her ship. She decided to push the larger button.   
  
Two small missiles shot forward from her front end. The digital readout on her left side went down to ten.   
  
Akane's jaw dropped as a large ball of fire consumed all of the pigs on the rooftop and left little more than chunks behind of any of them. "I've got missiles? Wow!" She grinned as she spun around in the air and moved back down to find Ranma's path again. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to try flying around him though. She'd seen how he'd reacted to spotting them in the air.   
  
"I'm doing pretty good," she said with a small and tired looking smile on her face. "I'm not sure what I'm doing, but I'm pretty sure I'm doing a good job anyway." This seemed to reassure her again and she turned into the air towards the ball of flames she'd seen earlier. "Maybe I should go check that out. I'm not sure what it was."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Oh my! I'm out of cooking oil!"  
  
Soun Tendo's head whipped around from his paper, his eyes were wide as saucers. "What? Really Kasumi! The streets are not safe!"  
  
"I'll only be out a little while. I'll have to borrow some of Ranma's things though. Such a nasty infestation we've gotten. I hope someone does something about it." She smiled cheerfully as she walked up the stairs.   
  
Soun sighed heavily and stood up. He walked into the kitchen, and sure enough, Kasumi was out of cooking oil. He closed the cabinet door and shuffled back to his paper.   
  
"Um, Tendo. What should we do if we're attacked while she's gone?" asked Genma.  
  
"I hadn't thought of that. We can't go with her, Nabiki isn't well."  
  
"I think I'll go with her, just to make sure she's safe." The man stood up and started to step towards the door.   
  
Soun grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down. "We'll both be needed to guard my daughter!"  
  
"You're staying. I'll need help to carry her under the porch if any trouble starts."  
  
"An excellent plan, Tendo!" agreed Genma heartily. He didn't really feel much like walking anywhere.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Kasumi Tendo frowned as she walked through a peaceful section of town. A light breeze made it cool, but not cold. "What a nice day for a walk."  
  
She strolled down the sidewalk and passed by two grunting pig cops that were standing in someone's front yard staring at her dumbly.  
  
The pair grunted to each other and squealed loudly as they seemed to agree to grab her.  
  
Kasumi's smile never faded as she put two shotgun rounds into their guts. "Good afternoon." She bowed, and then turned to continue happily on her way.   
  
The neighborhood was largely untouched by the disaster. A few small debris and broken signs lined the streets. They still had power, and everything seemed to be running relatively normally. She watched several cars pass by her moving out of the city.   
  
She turned and smiled as she noticed Dr. Tofu standing in front of his clinic with a worried looking frown on his face. He turned to glance at the passerby and froze.  
  
"Oh. Good afternoon Doctor!" she said sweetly.  
  
"Ka...Kasumi!" His glasses immediately fogged up.   
  
"How are you today?" she asked him.  
  
"Imagine meeting you here of all places!" sputtered the man as he laughed nervously very loudly.   
  
"I hope the store is open. I haven't seen anyone around today."  
  
The man's wits returned to him somewhat. "Kasumi? No! What are you doing here!? Don't you know...it's...dangerous?" He was staring directly at the shotgun that was resting on her shoulder. Her large handbag had an M-60 machine gun balanced between the straps. "..."  
  
"I need some cooking oil for dinner tonight. I really should be going now. It won't do to have dinner too late!" She turned away from him obliviously leaving him standing in the front lawn of the clinic.  
  
"..."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma Saotome ripped through the empty streets of Tokyo at high speed. His hair whipped wildly behind his head as he crouched low on the seat of his bike to minimize the drag. He was doing about two hundred and twenty miles an hour.   
  
A group of pigs stood in front of a tanker truck they had moved into the middle of the road.  
  
"You gotta be kiddin me," said the boy in disbelief as he stared at it. They were arming charges onto the truck so that it would explode when he neared it. The creatures rushed a bit more as the sound if his engine reached them. He pushed a small button on the inside rim of his glasses and the telescopic view zoomed back out to normal. The stupid things were standing in front of the tanker and readying their weapons as he blasted into them at a much higher speed than they expected.   
  
The boy slammed on his brakes and stood the bike up on the front wheel just in front of the monsters, spinning the back end around in a 360-degree stop. The bladed rims on the bikes tore four of the thing's faces off as he ripped into the group. The rear end slammed back down and the boy had twin sub-machine guns pointed in either direction. He opened fire and the dumb creatures fell to the ground before they had even knew what had hit them.   
  
His satisfied smirk was short lived though, as three of the air attack vehicles opened their machine guns on him as they rose into view from behind the tanker.   
  
The boy snorted and calmly pulled a grenade off of his chest. He revved his engine and squealed around to face them. He chuckled as the ships roared towards him at full throttle with their mounted guns blazing. The boy shifted around the fire and laid the bike on its side just as he neared the truck. Sparks flew off of the frame as he slid under it. He dropped the grenade as he passed under the vehicle and shifted the bike upright again. He continued a little ways down the street and stopped to watch the ships turn and move back towards him. He sighed and lit a cigarette. The vehicles started to close in just as the tanker exploded in a huge ball of fire. "This'd be more fun if it wasn't so easy." He smiled anyway as he watched the towering ball of flames for a moment as it spit out the twisted wreckage of the ships. "I hope Duke saw that one, it was cool." He turned his attention back towards his destination. It was right up the road.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Several minutes had passed and Ranma was already walking into a drab green tent set up in the middle of the street. A lot of smaller tents surrounded it and he walked into the place unmolested by the guards.   
  
The boy was puffing on a cigarette as he strolled into the room and glanced around at the uniformed officers standing around inside. "What's up?"  
  
"Where is Nukem?" Asked the man with the most crap on his chest.   
  
"I dunno. I'm all ya got right now. More than enough." He frowned at the man and crossed his arms. "Nobody tries to steal my chicks and lives."  
  
"Well, well. If it isn't Ranma Saotome." A young woman with short cut brown hair walked into the room. She was wearing a white shirt and had a pair of tight blue jeans around her waist. She was also wearing a leather jacket. "I was wondering when you and that old man you cart around with you were going to show up."  
  
The boy smirked at her. "Hey. Long time no see."  
  
"You never called," she said irritably.  
  
"I never do. Told ya that when I met ya."  
  
She snorted in amusement and smirked at the man in uniform. "He'll do."  
  
"Izumi..." growled the man as he glared at her.  
  
"He's man enough for the job. Too bad none of your boys were." She handed over a folder to the boy and sat down at a desk that was set up on one side of the tent. He walked over to the front of the desk and flipped through it. "Nuthin I haven't already seen."  
  
"It's the way of government work. I expect you'll be going in first?" She grinned at him and steepled her fingers. The old man was still frowning at her.  
  
"What a dick," commented the boy. The man heard him and busied himself with other things. "Still working for JSA?"  
  
"I'm sitting here aren't I?" she replied cheerfully. "Nice to see someone around who knows what they're doing. I'm certainly not going up against these kind of slavers if I can help it."  
  
"You could handle it," replied the boy calmly as he continued to browse the file. "Nothing new here. I ran into Hibiki earlier."  
  
"What the hell is that asshole doing involved with something like this? Doesn't fit his MO much."  
  
"I think he was hired help. Must be something good if he's helping this scum. I doubt he's getting paid with money."  
  
"Something to do with that old psycho?" asked the woman as she narrowed her eyes. "Trying to bring him back?"  
  
"Trying to finish what he started," replied the boy calmly. "Proton was his father as far as he's concerned. He's forgotten his family, did a long time ago."  
  
"I almost feel sorry for him," grumbled the woman.  
  
"You should. I know he's up to something now." The boy turned towards the tent's exit. "How many ships they bring with them?"  
  
"Just one, it's sitting in the middle of town."  
  
"Good. More than one is a pain in the ass, but this should be fun. Wonder who's in charge?" The boy loaded the twin sub machine guns as he strolled back to his bike. "I'd get out of here if I was you Izumi. They probably won't like you this close to them. I'd hate to have to come back for you again."  
  
"Right," grumbled the woman as she glanced at the old men. "My obligation here is done anyway." She stood up and turned to leave.  
  
One of the officers turned to frown at her. "You're not through here yet."  
  
"Yes I am. Nukem isn't coming," replied the woman as she frowned at him.   
  
"What?!" cried the man angrily.   
  
"I know where he is. I'm no my way to see him now," she replied calmly as she continued on her way. "Don't wait up." She strolled over to a black sedan that was parked nearby and checked her Government Issue handgun over as she walked.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane frowned as she looked down at the remains of the exploded tanker. It had been burning a while by the time she had reached it. She had six missiles left, and her ammunition was running low. "Dang. I'm gonna have to ditch this thing soon." The outer hull was covered in black marks and bullet damage; it was just superficial things really. She frowned as she glanced back at her home for a moment. "Maybe I should take this thing home and..." She shook her head and sighed. "Nevermind. I guess I should keep following him." She swooped down and moved along his path.   
  
She looked below as a woman surrounded by green tents stared up at her from beside her car. She pointed at her and started yelling something. Within moments, soldiers surrounded her.   
  
"Uh-oh." Some of them had rocket launchers. "What should I do?" She licked her lips as she stared at them through the targeting system. She squeezed her eyes shut and flipped the vehicle over in the air. She was upside down and moving away at full throttle. A few smoke trails passed by her on either side of her ship and she quickly righted herself and dove to just above street level. She jammed the speed all the way down and started to unstrap herself from the seat as it bounced violently. Finally, she freed the belt and twisted out of the seat towards the back. Her eyes went wide as she saw the two smoke trails in the air moving down towards her. "Oh shit."  
  
She was barely managing to hang on as the vehicle started sliding to a stop and twisted sideways. She steeled herself as she saw the two rockets closing in and pushed herself into the air over it as hard as she could. The ship continued forward and exploded in three violent explosions that sent pieces of twisted metal flying in every direction. She screamed as she shielded herself from the debris with her arms.   
  
Finally, the sound stopped and she realized that the explosion was over. Slowly she looked over her arm and gasped for breath. "Wh...Wow!" She was standing in the middle of several large chunks that had embedded themselves into the ground and was unharmed.   
  
She twisted towards the direction she had come from with a panicked look on her face. It was short lived as she realized that any pursuit was a good ways behind her. "Now what?" She cocked the handgun and glanced around nervously. She had no idea where she was, and it didn't look like she was anywhere near the boy's path. She grounded her teeth together and steeled herself. "Sink or swim Akane. You're trapped now."   
  
Low grunting started to sound in the distance ahead of her. She had two choices, forward or back. "Damn it. I'll show him!" She turned ahead and stomped forward with a determined look on her face.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Wonder how Akane's doin," said Ranma as he glanced back over his shoulder for a moment. He fired a few quick burst with the front mounted machine guns and sent a few more pigs to wherever it was they went when they died.  
  
He twisted the bike around and sailed over a twisted gap in the road that had been created with a large explosion from the initial assault. He flew backwards over the hole and fired his weapons into the remaining forces in mid air. The bike came down and he already had his hands on the handlebars again. He slid around with the momentum of his landing and shook his head as he stepped off of it. The ship was looming over him. It was as large as a skyscraper lying on its side. The massive ship was hovering just above the street nestled snugly between the massive towers of Tokyo.   
  
He turned on an alarm with a remote and an armor plate shifted around the bike, closing it off from the outside world. "Now. What to blow up first?" He cracked his knuckled as he pulled out his personal hand cannons.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Yamada san?" Kasumi knocked on the back door of the grocery store with a worried looking frown on her face. She knew the family quite well, and it wouldn't be too much of a surprise to see her. "I certainly hope he's not ill."  
  
She looked up at the window at the top of the store and sighed. It was very early and neither one of the kindly old couple who ran the grocery store was answering. Their granddaughter was staying with them, she would have expected to see her by this time of day. "Oh my. I do hope everything is all right."  
  
She turned her head to the side slightly, as crashing sounded from within the building in the upstairs part of the building.   
  
She turned away from the door and walked around to the glass door on the front of the building. It was a small place, rather like an American convenience store. They only stocked grocery items though. She blinked as three of the pig creatures charged down the stairs just after the granddaughter. The girl was screaming in terror. She was only about fourteen.   
  
"So. This is why I can't buy things for dinner?" she said with a very disappointed frown as she leveled her machine gun on the window next to the door.   
  
"No! My not my granddaughter!" cried the old man as he rushed up behind the things to try and hold them back.   
  
One of them simply slammed the butt of his weapon into the man's face. It turned and pointed the barrel down at him with an almost gleeful squeal.  
  
The other two seemed to notice the woman standing outside with the machine gun and froze in place.  
  
The window shattered and a horrible blasting rip tore through the air as cans exploded on shelves between the girl and the trio of monsters.   
  
Each one was pounded into a bloody pulp by the force of the bullets that ripped through them and the dairy counter. Jugs of milk poured onto the remains like a fountain.  
  
Everyone in the building was staring at her dumbly.   
  
"I'm very sorry about the window...and those other things." She looked quite embarrassed.  
  
The old man was howling with laughter as he nursed his bruised nose. "Oh. We don't mind one bit!"  
  
"Kasumi dear. Are you all right?" asked the old woman.  
  
"Wow! That was so cool!" cried the granddaughter as the shock started to wear off.   
  
"I just needed a few things for dinner," said the girl sweetly.   
  
"Well, I think we should come over for dinner tonight. I'll even supply enough ingredients to feed all of us!" said the old woman happily. "I'm sure your father won't mind, after all, there is safety in numbers!"  
  
"Oh my!" said the girl a she blushed a bit. "I suppose that would be all right. I should call first though."  
  
The old woman blinked and shrugged. "Sure. You can use the phone."  
  
"Thank you," said Kasumi as she bowed politely and went to make the call.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma sighed as he stared at the task before him. There were about a hundred of the pig things guarding a beam of light that held a small platform that would lead him into the ship.  
  
There were other ways to get in of course, but going in the front door was always the most fun. He chuckled to himself as he shook his head and screwed a special warhead into one of his shoulder-mounted missiles. "Heh, heh, heh. Fire! Fire!" He licked his finger and put it up into the wind for a moment.   
  
After a moment to figure out his shot he hefted the launcher onto his shoulder and fired at an almost eighty degree angle. The round arced through the air and came down in the middle of the army of pig cops leaving a smoking trail in the air behind it.   
  
He started walking towards them. They were still almost four hundred yards away. He zoomed in to the area around the smoke cloud. The stupid creatures were all looking at it dumbly. A few had moved in for a closer look, that number grew. They all grunted excitedly around it, thinking it was a dud.  
  
Six nozzles slid out of the sides of the warhead and a blanked of fire surrounded the round on all sides as it released a thick stream of napalm into the unsuspecting crowd.   
  
The creatures all panicked, firing wildly and blindly, killing each other. The boy sidestepped around the mess firing both his handguns into the flames, picking off the remaining creatures easily.   
  
He snorted and unhooked a freeze gun from his belt. It was a small silver handgun. He calmly blasted a path through the fire to the platform. It didn't take much to clean off the controls and enough room to stand in. He flipped a switch and replaced the freeze gun. "We'll go with sub machine guns." He wanted to save the mini gun on his back for later.   
  
The platform clanked into place nosily. The boy smirked as he realized he was surrounded. "Only ten of you? Must have caught you off guard."  
  
These were aliens, not pigs. They were brown skinned creatures in armor armed with energy weapons and machine guns. "I was wondering when I was gonna get a halfway decent workout."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane had no idea where she was. She'd never been to the area she was standing in before. It was a bad neighborhood by the look of it; not that it worried her much. Having your own matching set of sub machine guns did wonders for feeling secure.   
  
"Where the hell am I anyway?" She found herself wandering from building to building, looking for open doors and cleaning anything that wasn't human from her path with lead.   
  
She was dirty, sweaty, and she was not having a good time. "You stupid jerks!" she screamed as two more of the machine gun toting things appeared before her. She'd only recently started seeing them wandering around. The pig things seemed to take commands from them.   
  
The girl growled as she fired two shots at the things. One of them was clipped on the shoulder; the other had his brain lying on the pavement. The monster opened fire on her, but she stepped aside from his firing path and put a corrected shot into him before he could adjust his aim completely. The weapon continued to go off as it quickly pointed up as he fell over.   
  
"Honestly! Why do they keep jumping out at me that way! It's creepy!" She shivered and rubbed at her arms as she continued to wander aimlessly.   
  
Dull thumping music muffled by thick concrete walls caught her attention in the otherwise deserted street. She spotted a bar with several bikes sitting in front of it. "A...biker bar?" Her face contorted, a half-naked neon woman waved invitingly from the sign.   
  
The girl frowned as she pushed open the doors and aimed her weapons inside immediately. She froze as dozens of weapons were cocked and pointed at her from all sides of the room. She slowly lowered her weapon and the people in the room did the same. "False alarm," said a midget who was standing on a stool by a chalkboard with a piece of chalk in his hand. Several names were written on the board with about thirty-five marks between them. The name with the most, around nineteen, was 'Duke'.  
  
"What's this kid doing here?" asked one of the strippers that were hanging around a large man with short cut blonde hair.   
  
"Leave her alone," said the man stonily.   
  
"You!" gasped the girl as she stared at him.  
  
"Have a seat kid," said the man as he shoved one of the women off of the chair next to him. "Quite a collection you've got there."  
  
"Um, thanks I think," she grumbled as she walked up to the chair and ignored it. "What the hell are you doing? You're just going to let him do this alone?"  
  
"Yeah. Kind of the point this time," replied the man as he chugged a beer. "It's pissin me off too. I hate sittin around."  
  
The girl simply stared at him for a long moment. "This is part of his training." She wasn't sure if she was angry with him for it or not.   
  
"If it don't work out, he'll live, and I'll be around," said the man as he tapped the bar and ordered another one. The bartender was quite interested in what Duke was talking to a girl as young as her for.   
  
"How do you know I know him?" she grumbled.  
  
"Saw yer picture when I dropped his crap off. Bet he took that damn rice burning crotch rocket of his, stupid piece of crap. Sure it's fast, but it ain't got no real power in it."  
  
"Whatever." The girl was clearly uninterested. "Look. Do you mind if I hang out here? I'm kind of lost, and I don't think I should be wandering around on my own in a place like this just yet."  
  
Duke arched his eyebrow. "Yet?"  
  
"I'm stuck here because I didn't listen to him. I haven't seen it yet, but there's something really big running around. I don't think it's some kind of vehicle either. I've heard it, but I haven't run into it yet."  
  
The man nodded. "How big?"  
  
"Very. I haven't seen it really, but I know it's out there. I don't think it noticed me yet."  
  
"Larry, get out the big shit," said Duke as he put his empty beer on the counter. The half-naked girl sitting in his lap was pushed aside.   
  
"Right." The man had an American flag handkerchief tied around his head and a leather jacket. He tapped the wall behind a POW flag and it flipped up, revealing a heavy weapons cache.   
  
"Wow," muttered Akane.  
  
"Give the kid a rocket launcher," said Duke calmly, couple of grenades too.  
  
The man stared at him and then looked at the girl. She was covered in small arms anyway so he shrugged. "Sure. Why not."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Think you can take it now?" asked Duke.   
  
"I guess. How do I use this thing? Ranma didn't show me how to work something like this." She hefted it up into a firing position.  
  
"Don't worry. We're all goin," said Larry as he frowned at Duke. "Are ya nuts man? She's a kid!"  
  
It was clear she wasn't happy with hearing that, but didn't argue with anyone about it either.  
  
"I was just pointin out how nice it felt to hold one," said Duke as he stared back at the man.   
  
"Um, Duke? What are you gonna do when you find it?" asked one of the strippers. Akane rolled her eyes; she looked like she was getting off just talking to him.  
  
"Shoot him with something really big," replied the man as he caught the mini gun he'd been tossed from behind the bar. "This should do."  
  
"No problem," said Larry cheerfully as he began handing out heavy weaponry to the other patrons. "No firing any of this crap until we get out of my place! I don't care what walks through the door before then!"  
  
"Yeah. I'll be pissed if I can't have a beer when we're done," said Duke as he walked out the door. The others followed him outside cheerfully, drunkenly, and heavily armed.   
  
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Akane as she stepped up beside Larry the bartender.  
  
"Yeah," said the man cheerfully. The girl glanced around at the ragtag band of bikers. None of them looked Japanese; they were all older Americans. "You guys were soldiers weren't you?"  
  
"Yeah. I fell in love with Japan during Nam. It's where most of us came from. We sort of started this place for folks like us."  
  
"So, you're all soldiers?" she asked nervously as she glanced back at the group again. They weren't world war two vets or anything. All of them still looked able bodied and she realized they were moving in a very military like fashion. She was starting to feel better about being around them already. They knew what they were doing. At least it appeared that way.   
  
"How the hell did I end up here?" she muttered to herself.   
  
"You know. I can actually understand you asking yourself that. How did school girl end up in a place like this. That uniform isn't from any of the area schools."  
  
The girl glanced up at the man she was speaking too. He was searching the area around them carefully with his eyes, and not even looking at her. "I'm still not sure. I kind of flew here. I was supposed to follow Ranma, but I went off on my own and...well..."  
  
"Best made plans are laid to waste," said Larry cheerfully.  
  
"Right," she grumbled nervously. She felt completely out of place and decided it was a good time to stay quiet. She'd noticed no one else was speaking. After a few moments she noticed them using hand signals to communicate. Duke Nukem was running point just ahead of them. He raised his fist and backed up behind a corner. She stayed with Larry and he didn't seem to mind much as he crouched behind an alley wall. She'd figured out he was the one designated to keep an eye on her.   
  
They all sat behind cover in the street making no sound as they waited. Akane let out a quick and quiet gasp as she realized what they were listening too.   
  
A dull thumping noise as something massive hit the pavement as it moved. It was stomping its way through the city.  
  
"Big fucker isn't he?" said Duke. Her guard had a two-way radio on his belt.  
  
She turned her head down the other end of the alley and raised her weapon as her eyes went wide. "I've got a shot. Should I take it?"  
  
"Huh?" said Larry as he glanced at her. She was looking down the alley over the rocket launcher that was hefted onto her shoulder in a ready position. He realized that she was pointing dead at a gigantic brown and metal mass of sinew and teeth. "Holy shit! Fire!"  
  
The girl squeezed the trigger and felt her body kick back from the force of the weapon. The rocket blasted forward and the thing turned to look at them. It roared in anger and pain as the rocket lodged into its eye. It blinked with its good eye in what seemed like confusion. Then its face contorted into pain and anger, finally, its head blew up.   
  
The girl lowered the weapon and looked at him.   
  
"Wow! That was a one in a million shot!" cried the man in triumph.   
  
"I hit what I was aiming at ya know," she muttered irritably.   
  
The rest of the squad was yelling and cheering as they rushed up around her.  
  
Duke looked slightly disappointed. "Nice shot kid. I was kinda hopin to get off a few rounds before I had to go back. Oh well."  
  
The girl shot him an annoyed glance. "I'll try not to kill the giant monster so quickly next time."  
  
"No big thing kid. Relax."  
  
She blushed and nodded as she realized just how rude she was being.   
  
"You Japs sure get embarrassed easily," commented Larry with a rough snort. "Come on. We should head back."  
  
"Hey. What the fuck is that?" asked one of the squad. He was an older black man with white sideburns and had a cigar clenched in his teeth.   
  
"Looks like I get to have some fun too," said Duke as he watched the swarm of alien creatures charge for him. They were more of the off-world invaders rather than the pigs he expected to see. The rest of the squad jumped away for cover as the things began firing at them. Duke Nukem stood calmly and grinned as the gears in the weapon began to spin quickly.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"..."  
  
Kasumi blinked as she realized Dr. Tofu was still standing in the same place she'd left him. "Oh. Dr. Tofu! Good evening!"  
  
Mrs. Yamada poked the man a few times with her finger.  
  
"..."  
  
"What's with him?" asked the Granddaughter in confusion. She didn't look happy and had her arms loaded with groceries.   
  
"I'm not sure," said Kasumi.  
  
"Ka...ka...ka..." muttered the man softly.   
  
"Well. I think we should invite him to dinner with us. We have plenty of food, and I'm certain your father won't mind."  
  
"I suppose one more won't hurt." She gripped the man's arm and found that if she pulled on him, he would follow. "It's kind of cute. Like a puppy," she thought to herself cheerfully.   
  
The group moved off towards the dojo.   
  
"How come I've gotta carry all this crap the whole way?" she whined.  
  
"Now, now. We're not as young as we used to be," said the old man as he shuffled along slightly slower than before.  
  
"Yeah." The girl didn't look like she bought it, but it was enough to quiet her down.   
  
"I hope dinner isn't delayed too much," fretted Kasumi.  
  
"I'm sure it will be fine," comforted the old woman. "I'll help you out in the kitchen."  
  
"Oh! Thank you!" Kasumi Tendo's worries seemed to melt away. She often traded recipes with the woman and knew she was an excellent cook.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"I've completed the terms of the contract." Ryoga Hibiki stood with the aid of a large mech-like power suit. "I'm taking payment now."  
  
"How dare you?" snarled one of the aliens at him angrily. Three others like him nodded in agreement. The only reason the lost boy could understand them at all was because of a translation device within the suit they had supplied him. "You have failed us!"  
  
"I brought you the women. Whether or not you can hold them is your own problem."  
  
"We will not stand for this!" snarled the head alien again. None of them were armed.   
  
"You cannot stop me." He calmly hefted a case containing a small computer within it. It looked like nothing but a steel briefcase for his armor. "I have what I want. Our contract is finished."  
  
"I'll have you destroyed," snarled the leader. "You are not Proton, and we will destroy you easily!"  
  
Ryoga moved over to the platform that would lower him back to the ground again and flipped the switch. He raised his free arm and unloaded the machine guns into the leader. He snorted. "You're right. I'm not Proton. I'm his heir. He had the genius to create these weapons. I have the skills to use them properly. I'll accomplish what he could not. This planet will belong to me. If you get in my way, I suggest you remember just who taught me everything I know." The platform clanked loudly as he was lowered to the surface. "Soon, I'll have my revenge on Ranma, and then Nukem. No one will stop me after that."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Nabiki huffed angrily as she pulled herself back into bed and shifted back into a comfortable position. She didn't look particularly rested and grumbled angrily as she finally managed to cover herself in the sheets. In her hand during all of this was a baseball bat.   
  
Genma and Soun were on their backs with bruises on their heads and faces in the hallway just outside the room.  
  
"I think we should just hide ourselves. We'll sneak out to get her if there's any real trouble," said Genma.  
  
"A...an excellent idea Saotome!" agreed Soun.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Tatewaki Kuno stood in the middle of the street with his hair blowing dramatically in the wind. He looked calm and had one of the shotguns in his possession slung over his shoulder, the other was inside his belt like a sword. A few smoking remains littered the ground behind him. He pulled the weapon off of his shoulder and put a few more shells into the chamber.   
  
"I have yet to find evil to make a worthy challenge. They cower and fall before my might too easily with these weapons."  
  
"Tell me! Is there not a worthy warrior among you?!" he cried out into the streets. "I crave battle! Come evil, fall before the might of the Blue Thunder of Japan!"  
  
A dull thumping sound caught his attention. He turned his head to glance over his shoulder and frowned.  
  
A gigantic beast with gigantic cannons for arms and robotic legs roared at him as it spotted him down the street. It had just turned the corner and immediately moved towards him slowly. It had leathery skin and jaws full of jagged teeth. Two massive horns rose from its head accented by glowing red eyes for that really evil touch.  
  
"Tell me! Is there not a slightly less worthy warrior among you?!" cried Kuno out into the streets.  
  
The beast continued towards him and he stared at it with a stupid fearless determination. "Perhaps I..." He started to turn and run. Unfortunately, the monster unleashed the power of its cannons onto the buildings on either side of the street. Rubble came crashing down from above as the entire side of both buildings rained down into the middle of the street, creating a pile that blocked his escape.  
  
"So. It seems I have no choice." He cocked the weapon in his hand with his shoulder and reached for the one in his belt. "I look forward to a worthy challenge demon! You will fall before my mighty blade!"  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
TBC...  
  
See how that one sits with ya. ^_^ 


	4. Nuke4

Ranma Saotome: The Atomic Kid.  
  
Part 4  
  
A slight complication.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane Tendo sat at the bar with a beer bottle clasped in her grip. She'd taken a few sips, and it wasn't as gross as she'd thought it'd be. It was largely untouched and would likely remain that way.   
  
All around her the retired soldiers sat around the room. She could sense the bond they had and didn't really feel excluded. They were treating her like 'the new guy'. It was slightly unnerving for her, but she found she didn't mind too much.   
  
"Ya did real good kid," said the older black man as he puffed on his cigarette. "Hell of a shot. When did you start shooting kid?"  
  
"This morning," she replied simply.   
  
The man started laughing and Larry joined him while he cleaned a glass on the other side of the bar.   
  
The old man patted her shoulder. "No, really kid."  
  
"Some guy kidnapped my sister at school today. I think it was Ranma's fault, but he's helping out now. I'm not sure what to think of that jerk."  
  
Both men blinked and Larry leaned over the bar. "Yer kiddin?"  
  
The girl looked at them both and started to grow a little nervous. "No. Why?"  
  
"Kid, you are one hell of a shot," replied the black man cheerfully. "I ain't sure if I properly introduced myself. Name's Charles."  
  
"Um, nice to meet you," replied the girl. Her face flushed as she looked away from the gaze everyone in the room was giving her.  
  
"Get a load of this shit. I heard about stuff like this before, but I never believed it. I heard rumors about a few guys back in Nam." The old soldier puffed on his cigar and smirked at her with a strange knowing in his eyes.  
  
"Huh?" said the girl. She looked confused and avoided looking anyone directly in the eyes.   
  
"I got somethin for you kid," said Larry. "I've got a couple of these. I don't mind parting with one. Don't get caught low on ammo with nothing else on you. You won't find much ammo for this thing fighting those alien assholes. I got a couple of hundred rounds you can have. Think of it as a gift for helping defend the place. Come back in anytime, just don't expect a drink every time. Okay?" He grinned and placed a sleek black rifle on the table. It had a huge complicated scope on it and the bullets were bigger than her index finger.   
  
"I can't take this..." It was huge, and it looked expensive.   
  
"You got talent kid. Don't try and push it away. Maybe you should join the service or something?"  
  
"You're kidding. Me in the military?" grumbled the girl flatly. "I'm too young to even think about that yet." She found herself seriously wondering just how these people had gotten ahold of all these weapons. The bar was a disguised armory. The sensible portion of her brain decided it was something she was better off not knowing about. "Here. I really can't take this. It's not right."  
  
"Keep it anyway. If Duke is right and you're staying with Ranma, you might need it." He winked at her and pushed it towards her.   
  
"Thanks," she muttered with a heavy blush as she hefted it up.   
  
"Who showed you how to fire a weapon?" asked Charles.   
  
"Ranma."  
  
"You gotta be kiddin me," said a blonde haired white man as he walked up to the group. He had on a straw cowboy hat and an open flannel shirt was draped over his shoulders. Strands of gray were becoming more noticeable in his stubble and hair. His left hand held a half-full beer mug and his walk wasn't quite straight any longer. "You can't tell me you believe this. The kid didn't miss a shot the whole trip."  
  
"You're right," said Charles. "Not a one."  
  
"So? I always hit what I'm shooting at," she muttered sourly. "What's wrong with that?"  
  
"It don't happen overnight, that's what," said Larry as he continued to clean his glass. The trip back was pretty hectic. Once Duke had run off on his own in order to clean up some of the mess in the area, they all returned to the bar. A few hundred dead aliens littered their path. "You'll like this rifle. It only holds about four rounds at a time, but you won't mind." He hefted several boxes of ammo onto the table and placed them into a small, green, military issue ammunition bag. "That's a hundred and fifty rounds. Sorry I can't fit more. Bring the bag back will ya? It's got sentimental value." The shells were longer than her fingers with sharp looking points.   
  
"Um, thanks I guess," she muttered. She was bewildered by her situation. "I'm good with a gun?" She upended the bottle and chugged down a few gulps before setting it down.   
  
Those near her arched their eyebrows and said nothing. The girl pushed the bottle back to the other side of the bar. It was obvious she didn't like the taste. She did understand that wasn't really what you drank beer for and kept it down without coughing. She was forced to take a few gasping breaths before speaking again. "Do you have anything else to drink? I don't want to get drunk on this side of town, and I've never had beer before."  
  
Larry shrugged. "Sure. I'll get you a soda."  
  
The girl smiled a little as she looked down at the rifle in her hands. "Thanks."  
  
The man was smiling as he put the glass down on the counter. "You're welcome."  
  
++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma frowned as he looked at the circle of enemies around him. "What the hell?" She had found herself in an empty cargo bay with a long hall on either side of the room in every direction.   
  
Along with plasma weapons, the creatures had tanks of clear fluid on their backs as well with nozzles and hoses.   
  
"You dirty son's of bitches." The boy caught sight of nets in the hands near the back of the group.  
  
He stood there and let the squirt gun toting creatures soak him down.  
  
"If yer planin, what I think yer planin, yer in for a world of shit." The redhead leveled her eyes dead forward.  
  
The monster's jumped forward armed with stun batons as they let their other weapons hang from straps at their sides.   
  
The girl twirled her handguns around her fingers and put them back on her hips. "This is really going to suck for you guys." She cracked her neck and clenched her fists as they slowly closed in around her.   
  
Unfortunately, that was when it hit her. Some sort of energy wave emitted within the ship. She fell to her knees with her eyes wide with shock as her body suddenly felt heavier and an intense throbbing started to form in her head. "What the fuck?!" she snarled angrily.  
  
The monsters around her started to put their weapons away as the creatures with the nets moved towards the front cautiously.   
  
She could hear moans of pain all around her, an all too familiar sound. Every woman she'd ever encountered on one of these ships acted like it hurt to be on it. Some of them even begged for death. By the time they reached that point it was all she could do to help.   
  
Ranma watched as her glasses hit the floor and clattered around. Waves of pain from the sound filled her head, her senses were super excited, she could feel everything, the air, and even the heat from the beasts in front of her. The most maddening sound alone was the insane pace of her own heartbeat.   
  
"For this..." she said calmly. "This is what you put my chicks through when you pull this shit?"  
  
"No. No fists for you Assholes." She glared up at them and stood up. On her arm was the biggest gun they had ever seen. It had grown out of a rifle like weapon she pulled from her back. A blue ball of light started to form in front of the barrel as several blades began to spin around the nose at an increasing rate of speed. "Hmmm. Wonder if I built up enough juice yet?" thought Ranma to herself as she lifted the firearm into a firing position. It was a large silver hunk of metal with various wires and tubes poking out of it. The girl had to hold it with both hands and the barrel was thicker than her arm. A flashing red warning light and beeping sign told her the gun thought she had enough.   
  
Rather than try and charge her, the monsters were running and flying away as fast as they could. They were starting to near the door on the other side of the hallway.   
  
"I've never vaporized an entire hallway before. Should be cool."   
  
A beam of blue light roared out of the barrel, inside the light was a solid projectile that moved far too fast for anyone to see. When it impacted with the group of aliens a large round hole about the size of their own head appeared right through the middle of the group, a few limbs fell to the ground as a result and several had chunks of their torsos missing. The light from the beam grew larger and melted the hall into a large circle shape, vaporizing the remains. The girl snorted as she put it back on her back and watched the seemingly endless void of the new round hallway. Thousands of feet away at the end of the hall, a bright light formed suddenly. She stood calmly and watched it grow brighter and brighter as she put her shades back on. "Nice." The end of the hallway ended in sunlight when the explosion died down. "I should use that more often."  
  
Ranma flicked her pigtail and noticed that her headache and the pained screams had all stopped. "Much better. I'll have to remember to tell Duke about that."  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Warning lights began to flash as sirens sounded on the bridge of the invading ship. Aliens rushed around excitedly as they worked to find the source of the problem. In the middle of the room, an alien much larger than his subordinates sat in a chair and gazed around at his underlings as they bustled about. He looked largely the same as the smaller alien grunts, but had large green veins that bulged out of his brown skin all over his body, and across his face. "What the hell is going on?" growled the new lead alien to his commander. He was new to his job. Ryoga Hibiki had done away with his former superior officers. "What happened?"  
  
"We cannot leave orbit," replied the creature coldly. "Our only choice is to kill him, we have no other options."  
  
"Very well. Prepare for him."  
  
"He will be waiting for him."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Tatewaki Kuno backed away from the towering beast before him and growled. It roared angrily launching a large drop of drool onto his clothes.   
  
He stared down at it in disgust. "Foul thing." He gripped his shotgun and pointed at the thing's face. It reported and the beast lurched back, shaking its head violently. It started stomping forward and Kuno backed away while firing another shot into its upper chest. The thing had mechanical arms from the elbow down, and everything from its lower abdomen down was metal. Visible heat could be seen from the monster's mouth as it breathed heavily and slowly turned its weapons as it attempted to train them on him. Several shots exploded behind Kuno tearing huge holes into buildings and littering the ground with debris.   
  
"Curses!" snarled the Kendoist angrily. The thing was cutting off all of his escape routes. He could not run away. "Fine then! I shall face you!"   
  
The beast roared as the boy charged directly at it brandishing both weapons.  
  
It welcomed him by bending down to catch him in its mouth. Kuno could see the flames in the monster's belly. He snarled angrily and nailed it upside its face with one of the shotguns. The creature landed on its side hard from the blow as Kuno spun around in the air and fired a shot into its neck.   
  
The beast roared in rage as it quickly stood back up and fired randomly with the cannons.   
  
Kuno was in too close though and jumped up to belt the creature again, firing into its chest with the free weapon as he did so. "Ha! My technique is invincible beast!"  
  
The monster opened its mouth as it turned back to face him again. A jet of flame forced the boy to roll back away from it. "Damn!"  
  
The creature stomped back a little and leveled the cannons towards him. He growled and started running around it again to stay out of the shots. He was forced to move in the opposite direction a few times by a close shot, but managed to stay out of fire. "I am not yet defeated fiend!"  
  
The creature opened its mouth and started to breathe fire as soon as he started charging forward. Both cannons went off and he could feel the shells passing on either side of him as he tripped and rolled across the ground just behind the jet of flames. He scrambled onto his hands and knees with both weapons still gripped in his hands and moved between its legs, barely avoiding being crushed underneath one of the massive piston like feet.   
  
He noticed the monster was still firing flames at the ground as he stood up and looked at the back of its head. He simply raised the shotgun and placed it directly against the back of its skull. The reach the weapon gave him was just enough to allow it.   
  
The fire promptly stopped, but alas, Kuno pulled the trigger at that moment. The creature fell forward onto the ground landing in its own brains.  
  
"I knew I would be victorious!" cried the boy arrogantly as he waved the magic blade in his right hand about over his head. "Having confronted such evil and righteously destroying it with my might, I feel that this darkness is now broken! I shall return post haste to my quarters to meditate upon this!" He turned and promptly started running home as soon as he climbed over the debris in his way. "Hmmm. Perhaps Saotome has some merit. I shall inquire about a more powerful blade upon the morrow!" He paused in the street and looked deeper into the city. "I do not think Saotome has finished his battle yet. I have not yet found any trace of Akane Tendo as well. Perhaps I should return this way and inquire of her whereabouts again." That was a much braver reason to run away. By the time he got back, most of it would be over.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma calmly walked through one of the many long metal hallways within the ship. None of the aliens were using anything but stun weapons. She wasn't carrying weapons in her hands as she casually strolled towards the metal doorway in front of her. She already knew what was on the other side thanks to her glasses. She smirked slightly as she cracked her knuckles as it slid aside in front of her.   
  
Five more of the things were standing on the other side waiting for her to open it. Each one had another stun baton gripped firmly. "What the hell is wrong with these assholes? Haven't they given this crap up yet?" Fighting them with bullets when they were using stun weapons was a waste of ammo, but it was getting to the point where she wouldn't care about that much.  
  
She stood patiently and waited in clear view of the camera right in front of the door. It took a minute or so, but it opened up and the things stepped forward warily.  
  
"Man, you guys are so gonna get your asses kicked. I'm getting sick of this, I think I'm gonna set off your reactor core. I need to blow off some steam."  
  
They charged forward as a group and waved the stun weapons around wildly. The girl kicked her knee up sharply and put her leg back down before she grabbed the very large knife that had been ejected from the side of boot. She shifted sideways with the knife in front of her as two passed on either side of her. The one on her right hit the ground with blood spraying out of its throat. The other staggered for a second and quickly turned to attack her from behind.   
  
The redhead had the one that had charged directly in an arm lock with the blade against his throat. She neatly carved through half of the neck and slashed down to remove one of the creature's wrist. Both weapons clattered to the floor at her feet. She released her dead prisoner and flipped the knife around backhanded just in time to jab it into the monster charging from behind's gut. She sliced up splitting him from the neck down and flipped the knife over the back of her head into the last monster's forehead.  
  
"Heh." She turned to pull the knife out of the creature's skull as the injured one screamed at the loss of its hand and clutched the wound. She flipped it around her wrist and stabbed into the side of the thing's head. She shook some of the blood off the weapon and wiped it off on the fallen monster's uniform. She replaced it and smiled as she realized there were five stun weapons lying around on the ground. They were the new models, with belt clips built onto them. "Oh yeah." She collected four of them and pulled two small chains out of her pocket. They had swiveling clips on either end that were well oiled and worked smoothly. The girl linked two of the weapons with each one and hooked one on her belt, and activated the ones she was holding. The redhead smirked as she gave it a few spins around her body.   
  
The weapons crackled and popped excitedly lighting the hallway with quick popping flashes of blue and white. She smirked to herself and started whistling the theme to 'Enter the Dragon' as she spun the weapon around lazily. She started to walk to the next room and stopped in front of the door with her grin widening. There was fifty waiting in ambush on the other side of the door in a cargo bay. A few of them had energy weapons now as well, but it wouldn't spoil her fun or anything.   
  
"Sure is nice of them to only guard the most direct way to important shit." The interior of the ship was as large as a small multi level city. He could see the holding cells were just ahead from the map on the wall beside her. Her glasses scanned and memorized it with only a quick glance at the lighted plaque on the wall.   
  
She calmly pushed the button to open it and grinned as she took up a ready position with her improvised electric nunchaku. "Hi."  
  
The things charged towards her in mass and she jumped into the room to meet them spinning the weapons wildly around.   
  
The monsters around her staggered as the flashes made it difficult to focus and she landed unchallenged. The things started to adjust as the three closest to her all flew away shaking wildly and foaming at the mouth, each one had no less than five visible burn marks.   
  
Four of the beasts armed with plasma weapons stood on top of the large steel crates that turned the back half of the room into a few narrow passageways. They all took sniping positions and fired down at her as she tore through the ground troops. She sent each one that charged forward flying away with several blows burned onto them. The redhead lashed her foot out and hook kicked one of them face first into the side of one of the crates crushing his skull as she nailed the creature in front of her with an upwards strike to his crotch. It flew straight into the air. One of the energy weapon carrying aliens had finally figure out that aiming was a good way to stop killing his swarming comrades. She spun the nunchaku in her left hand and nailed the ball of energy dead on. It flew back and burned off the creature's face. The monsters surrounding her were thinning out and the plasma toting aliens started to get better shots at her, unfortunately none of them got off more than one as each blast was deflected in the same manner. There were still about thirty five aliens left when the batons finally ran out of juice. They were grouped together on the other side of the room and waited for her to come to them. Ranma strolled out of the rows of boxes into the open area of the room in front of the alien mob.  
  
A collective alien chuckle started as Ranma took back her chains and put them into her pocket calmly. After that, she lit a cigarette. The creatures started to edge forward slowly. They all stopped as she pulled the mini gun off her back.  
  
"I got a mini gun and you got electric sticks, plus, you're all lined up like yer takin a damn photo. So smile for the birdie!"  
  
She opened fire and quickly leveled the crowd of monsters.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane sighed with relief as she lowered her handgun. Larry was showing her the simple operation of her weapon when the door opened. The other men did the same thing and the midget by the chalkboard sat back down on the stool next to his beer as he jumped off the counter.   
  
A young woman with short brown hair poked her head into the door. "Do you do this to every patron you get?"  
  
"We'll get over it when this mess clears up," replied Larry calmly.  
  
"I should have you all arrested!" snapped the woman angrily.  
  
"Who's she?" asked Akane.  
  
"Izumi. She's a bit loud, but she's on our side. Don't worry."   
  
The girl shrugged and went back to looking over the weapon again. It was heavy, and she had enough experience with other firearms that she could tell it was going to kick hard.   
  
"Who's the kid?" asked the woman as she stared at Akane for a moment. She seemed confused and surprised to see her.  
  
"Ranma's new friend."  
  
"Oh. You're the engagement."  
  
The girl frowned. "I'm not marrying him."  
  
"I'm glad you're smart enough to realize you can't keep him," replied Izumi cheerfully. "He's broken a few hearts before."  
  
Akane's frown deepened. "I knew it, he's a womanizing jerk."  
  
"Of course he is. That's part of the deal," replied Izumi cheerfully. "He has his place in the world. Marrying him would be hell anyway. He is fun though isn't he?" She tapped the bar and grinned. "Bourbon please."  
  
Larry was already setting it down.   
  
Akane was staring at her in shock. "You slept with him?"  
  
"A lot of girls have." Izumi looked somewhat surprised at the younger girl's reaction. "He's no Duke Nukem mind you..."  
  
"Him too?" stammered the girl dumbly.  
  
"No. He likes his women a bit more...mature I think."  
  
"Rrrrrr. The pervert."  
  
Izumi was confused. "What are you so pissed about? You knew this already didn't you?"  
  
"I can't believe my father would do this to me," she replied irritably. "Hearing about it doesn't help."  
  
"Oh. Don't worry. He's not a bad guy."  
  
"Yeah, right," muttered the girl irritably. "You don't have to live with him. I hope he leaves soon, I can only take so much of that macho jerk."  
  
"That's an interesting way of looking at it," replied the woman as she sipped at her drink. "You look like his type too. I'm surprised you don't like him."  
  
"I don't know what to think of him," grumbled the girl.  
  
"We need him around," replied the woman with a small frown. "The world needs Duke Nukem, and someone to replace him when he retires. He won't be as old as he is forever."  
  
"I'm sure, these things wouldn't be here if not for him."  
  
"Yes they would," replied Izumi calmly as she continued to drink. Her face became very serious. "Those ships they brought here, those aren't just invasion troops. Those things are floating rape prisons for women."  
  
"Wh-what?" gasped the girl in shock.  
  
"It's actually painful for a woman to be inside one. Trust me Akane, I don't want to think of a world without Duke Nukem, or Ranma. Not one of those ships has ever made it off this planet under their watch."  
  
Akane found herself staring down at the bar. "Great, now it's more confusing than ever..." She glanced over her shoulder at the door.  
  
"Thinking of trying out your new toy?" asked Larry.  
  
She hooked it over her shoulder and adjusted some of her other weapons a bit as she stood up and faced the door. "Which way is Nerima ward?"  
  
The man tossed her a small cheap compass. "It's southeast of here. Just keep following the needle and you'll find your way."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"Don't be a stranger now. I want that bag back remember?" said Larry cheerfully. "You be careful with that, and don't shoot any people with it!"  
  
"I promise," she replied as she walked out into the street. It was getting late, but she thought she had enough time to make it home before sunset. She turned towards the center of town where the ship had landed and frowned. "Good luck, Ranma. I hope you pass your test." She took her new rifle off her shoulder and decided to relieve herself of some of her anxiety and stress on the way home. It only held four rounds though, but it obviously wasn't meant for close range firing. Loading it was simple though, and she didn't think she'd need much else to make it home. Larry had donated a lot of ammo for it.  
  
A familiar looking speck was joined by three others just like it a ways down the road. Three of the pig cops were moving slowly towards her in what appeared to be a patrol. She ducked behind a large rock and used it to steady her weapon. Pressing her eye against the scope she adjusted it the way she had been instructed. She smirked to herself as she found the crosshairs already directly on one of the creature's neck.   
  
The head popped off neatly and sprayed his companions with blood. The next shot removed most of the top of the middle one's head. The last pig took one right between the eyes, and a large red spray escaped the back of his skull.  
  
The girl frowned as she glanced down at the weapon and scanned the area for any more targets. "This thing sure is messy." She frowned slightly and decided that there was no way she could have enjoyed anything so disgusting.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Kasumi frowned very crossly as she blasted the disgusting perverts that kept trying to grab the women walking with her. They even looked like the pigs they were in fact. Tofu was being very polite and flinched in the most adorable way whenever she fired one of the weapons. The M-60 was getting low, and she so disliked having to use those under powered machine guns some of the things used. The shotgun was good enough to sate her though, and it was the favored weapon of the pig creatures that seemed to show up the most.   
  
Behind her walked the shopkeeper's family, four women who had come out of hiding, the old man from the Yakitori place and his family, and the beef bowl restaurant owner and his family. "Oh dear. I think I may need help with dinner tonight." Fortunately, the business owners were contributing to the meal and talked cheerfully behind her. She was having a nice conversation with the shopkeeper's wife about those darling little towels the woman had hanging in her kitchen when she had been interrupted again. "Such rude people!"  
  
"Pardon dear?" muttered the old woman in confusion.   
  
"Those unpleasant people who keep trying to grab those girls. They have no consideration at all. I do hate to speak so about someone..." She looked flustered and sighed heavily. "I don't know what to say at all." She bowed in greeting to the squealing pig that rounded the corner in front of them. "Oh, good morning!" None of the people looked particularly worried at his appearance.  
  
The thing grunted and hefted its shotgun up to take the women prisoner.  
  
The girl in the lead simply sighed and promptly put two shells into him.  
  
"Ka...kaa...kasu....Kasumi....k...Good morning, Kasumi...Kasumi, nice weather we're having, huh?...Kasumi, what brings you this way?..." muttered Tofu quietly to himself from just behind her..  
  
"Hey, Tofu is getting better," said one of the girls near the front of the group,.  
  
"Yes, that's nice to hear dear," said the shopkeeper's wife. "I hope he manages to get a grip on that soon. I don't really know how much longer Kasumi will wait before she..."  
  
The girl blushed and hung her head a little as she gripped the weapon in her hand a little tighter. Her hair covered her face so Tofu could not see her expression. His mind went blank as her fingers wrapped around the trigger as she adjusted her grip slightly. He swallowed hard, and stopped thinking again.   
  
Kasumi blinked and looked back with a cheerful smile on her face as Tofu suddenly became a little easier to guide. "Are you sure you're all right?"  
  
"K...k...kkk..."  
  
The girl sighed, his hands were becoming clammy again. He had gotten over that earlier, but seemed to black out again. She had no idea Tofu would react so badly to an Alien Invasion. She thought someone should tell them not to do it anymore. She'd ask Ranma about that when he got back. Surely he would know how if no one else did.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Nabiki Tendo was sound asleep. Soun and Genma had moved the shogi table under the porch and played the game while cowering in the dirt.   
  
"Saotome, how much longer is this going to take?"  
  
"Shouldn't last more than a few more hours," replied Genma with a small shrug. "We could probably come out and turn on the television if we wanted too."  
  
Soun nodded, but didn't move from his place under the floor. Neither did Genma.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Girls screamed around him, some of their clothes were in tatters, but they were mostly unharmed as they cowered back in their prisons. They weren't in any pain anymore, but their captor's rather messy deaths were a bit frightening.  
  
A calm and collected redheaded girl strolled right through the guard with a pair of desert eagle handguns in her grip. They fired off seemingly randomly, often with her not really bothering to look where she was firing.   
  
Ranma strolled through the giant holding cages as two floating brains with monstrous faces appeared before her in the air. Long tendrils floated below them and they began to move towards her firing some sort of energy shots at their rescuer.   
  
Ranma spun and fired around the two monsters in the narrow corridor through the holding area. The balls of power dissipated into the floor as she slid past the blast untouched and put her pistols away. She rolled across the ground under them as they concentrated their fire together on her position. Instead of passing completely under them she landed flat on her back with twin double barreled sawn off shotguns pointed up at them. Green fluid shot into the air above them as both weapons reported. The creatures hit the ground with a rather messy splat just as the girl made it to her feet. She was a bit dirty, but it wasn't more than a few stains on her shirt. "Now I'm getting pissed. I liked this shirt." He glanced around at the girls standing at the bars of the cages with shocked looks on their faces.   
  
Ranma looked down at himself for a moment. He was a woman at the moment. "Uh oh." A large group of the pig things came bursting through the door in what appeared to be riot gear. There were about fifteen of them. The redhead was busy looking around at the girls staring at her and didn't seem to notice.  
  
"Why are you standing there? Go kick some ass sister!" cried one of the girls excitedly.  
  
"Yeah, whatever," grumbled the redhead as she felt her face flush. Her eyes became bloodshot, though no one could see anything beyond a cool stare because of her shades. She let out a small growl that no one but her could hear before speaking again. "The military will show up to get you out of these cages shortly. I've got business higher up."  
  
"What? You're just gonna leave us?" gasped a few girls in horror.   
  
"Heh. I'm gonna go find the biggest, ugliest, asshole I can, then I'm gonna rip off his head and shit down his neck. After that, I'm gonna turn the engines on and let this thing ride into the atmosphere. The hole I put in it already should be more than enough." She calmly started forward towards the slowly advancing pigs. They had formed a shielded wall in front of her and were pushing forward carefully. She pulled a grenade launcher off her back and sent a few shells into the mess. A few easy shots with her personal hand cannons cleaned the remaining few up. She didn't even have to move from where she was standing. "Dumbasses."  
  
She strolled up to the doors and pulled a small radio up to her lips. "Holding area secure, send in the troops and clean up the mess." She calmly strolled onward as the doors opened up revealing about five of the floating brain creatures. The girl calmly leveled the minigun she had strapped to her back on the things as they floated towards her. "Hey, what's that on yer face?"  
  
The floating creature in front of her seemed confused for a moment and paused. She promptly fired and removed most of the monster's jaw. It splattered onto the ground and the others reacted by sending more of the energy blasts towards her. "There, I got it fer ya."   
  
The doors closed leaving the imprisoned girls behind her. After several explosions the redhead walked back into the room and up to the nearest cage. "Hey. How many got taken out of here?"  
  
The girl closest to her seemed confused, but had enough sense about her to answer. "About ten of us were taken out and through those doors. We haven't seen anyone come back." She glanced back at her fellow prisoners. "Who are you anyway?"  
  
"Just a figment of your imagination," replied the redhead calmly as she turned back through the doors. She tossed a set of keys at the girl's feet. "Don't leave this room. Let the others out and stay put. Help is coming, and there are still a lot of nasty things on this ship."  
  
The girl nodded and scooped the keys up nervously. They were strangely shaped and squared, but it was still easy to tell which end unlocked the doors. She immediately did so and rushed up to the door before it closed on the redhead. "Wait! Thank you!"  
  
She was cut off as the doors closed, the girl hadn't even looked back at them.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Oh father!" exclaimed Kasumi as Soun and Genma crawled out from under the porch. Nabiki had a blanket wrapped around her and was sitting in front of the television. She glared at the two men, but seemed to decide that it was too much trouble to bother being angry with them. "Why are you under there?"  
  
"We were waiting in ambush!" said Genma proudly.  
  
"Uh, yes! That's right Saotome!" agreed Soun.  
  
"You were hiding," said Nabiki flatly.   
  
"Are you feeling better?" asked the older girl as she ignored the two men's embarrassment.   
  
"Not really. My leg is killing me, but it's not too bad anymore. Did you pick up those pills for me?" replied the girl as she glanced back at the people. Kasumi produced a bottle of over the counter painkillers out of her bag. "What did you do? Bring half the town home with you?" Nabiki didn't seem to pay much attention to whatever answer she was getting as she fumbled with the bottle irritably. "Picked the perfect time to run out didn't we?" The girl quickly downed a few and realized just how many people were standing in her doorway.  
  
The blank stare was easy enough to read and Kasumi blushed at her sister's reaction. "It seems we're having company for dinner. Oh my! I should get started!"  
  
All of the older women made for the kitchen. The younger members of the group walked out of the kitchen having left the food there. They began to sit around the living room quietly while the women talked. The men all moved towards the porch, two young boys sat with the men. Both of them were young enough to not have much interest in the girls and ignored them.   
  
Tofu stood by the door. "..." It was obvious he wasn't planning on moving.  
  
"What's with him?" asked the girl Kasumi had saved at the store earlier.   
  
"He'll be fine," said Nabiki as she continued to stare at the television. "This should be over soon. Duke Nukem has been running around town cleaning up most of the mess in town. Word is that Ranma is on the alien spaceship now."  
  
Everyone seemed pleased with the news.   
  
Nabiki blinked as grainy helicopter footage started on the news. A reporter smiled into the camera and adjusted her long dark hair. "This just in! It seems a few citizens of Tokyo have joined in the defense of our nation from the invaders."  
  
Nabiki stared at the image as it zoomed in and became more focused. Tatewaki Kuno was standing in the middle of the street with dual shotguns in his grip. Surrounding him were several dead pigs as he moved back towards Nerima. "Exclusive footage shot earlier today shows this young man fought bravely to save his classmates from the aliens. A battle held earlier today shows he defeated an S-class alien to rescue many of the captured women." Grainy distant news footage of someone blowing a very large monster's brains out from behind.  
  
"I'm getting a headache," growled Nabiki irritably.   
  
"What's an S-class alien?" asked the shopkeeper's daughter.   
  
Another of the nearby girls turned to look at her. "It's one of the really big ones. Those are very dangerous!"  
  
"Wow!"  
  
Nabiki felt her eye twitch as she continued to ignore them. Her classmate's photo appeared on the screen with his name underneath it. By some sick coincidence, they had decided to surround his picture with red roses to make his heroics seem even more dramatic.   
  
"He's kind of cute."  
  
"He lives around here, I wonder if he has a girlfriend?"  
  
"No. He's too stupid to get one. I know him." Nabiki glared at them. "He's a complete idiot."  
  
"He's brave to fight those aliens though," pointed out the shopkeeper's daughter cheerfully.   
  
"I wouldn't mind having a guy like that come to save me. Not that I don't appreciate Kasumi's help..." agreed another of the nearby girls.   
  
The middle Tendo daughter found herself sitting amongst seven girls of various ages. All of them were in their early teens though. She wasn't really in the mood for company, but managed to suppress her irritation. She pulled her blanket tighter and sighed. "I wonder when Akane will be back."  
  
"In other reports, a mysterious sniper seems to be eliminating aliens from the east district. Military sources deny any special forces troops in the area." A map with several marked places on it showed an almost direct line towards Nerima.   
  
"That must be Akane now," said Nabiki calmly. "Daddy, I think Akane will be home soon. Don't forget to set a place for her, Kasumi."  
  
The shopkeeper's daughter was sitting directly beside her now. "Wow. Your family is so cool, Nabiki!"  
  
The older girl merely shrugged. "I guess." She stood up and limped towards the stairs with her blankets. "I'm going to take another nap now. Do me a favor and wake me up for dinner will ya?"  
  
The girl watched the older girl move away as the others parted for her to get by. "Okay."  
  
Tofu appeared in front of her just as she reached the stairs. "Let me take a look at that leg for you." He seemed to calm down considerably, and actually looked somewhat relieved to have something else to think about for a while.  
  
Nabiki frowned at him and rolled her eyes. "Fine. I want to lie down though. My leg is killing me again."  
  
The man sighed and nodded. "I've got to get some bandages from your father and make sure it's wrapped up properly. I wish I'd thought to bring my bag with me. I'll bring you something for the pain as soon as it's safe enough to head back to the clinic. Those pills Kasumi brought you will only do so much. You'll need an antibiotic as well."  
  
The girl slowly moved up the stairs and nodded. She couldn't put much weight on the leg and it showed. Tofu was feeling worse and worse about how he had handled himself so far. It wasn't like him to be so irresponsible.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane Tendo sighed as she continued to follow the compass towards Nerima. She had her handgun gripped tightly and a pair of binoculars up to her eyes as she scanned the area for any targets of opportunity. It was clear, and had been for almost an hour. She hadn't run into any more monsters yet, and it was starting to look like she was in the clear.   
  
The girl paused as she noticed movement a good way down the road. A lone figure was strolling away from her with a pair of weapons in his hands. "Who's that?"  
  
She pulled the rifle from her shoulder and dropped to her knee as she adjusted the sight a bit. "Huh? Kuno?! What the hell is he doing here?" She frowned as she glanced around at the deserted street. "I don't feel like dealing with him." She turned to move down a different street away from him. It wouldn't be too difficult to stay behind him, but she didn't want to get spotted tailing him either.  
  
That was when it hit her. "He's armed?" After a moment of thought, she just shrugged and turned down the road again away from him.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
A few minutes later she was sitting in an upstairs window looking down on the street through the scope on her rifle. Kuno walked by wielding two shotguns openly. No one was contesting him, and people were starting to appear on the streets again. She needed to get home before the police took control again. Kuno seemed to have the same idea, though she doubted if he'd put any thought into it.  
  
She pulled her eyes off the lens and frowned as four of the alien creatures landed in the street around Kuno, each of them had a jetpack and a plasma gun. "I don't have a plasma gun yet," she muttered as she quickly squared her sights on the first one that hit the ground.   
  
Kuno hadn't moved yet, but the pedestrians had quickly cleared the street again. The alien things that surrounded him already had their weapons trained on him. "Feh. More dullards wish to challenge the might of..." Two of them fell dead before him. The sound of gunfire turned his eyes towards the window of a nearby building as he splattered large stains onto the pavement with the remaining two monsters.   
  
"Who?"  
  
Akane Tendo was turning away and leaving the room.   
  
"Can it be? My love has sought to rescue me from..."  
  
Akane opened the door and already looked pissed. "Damn it. Why did I do that? Stupid Kuno..." She had merely wanted two of the plasma guns the creatures were toting and had forgotten who she was saving.   
  
"My tigress! You..." Kuno froze as he felt something push up against his most private of areas. Little Kuno was in danger, and his tiny brain struggled to understand why. "Seem to be having a feminine problem this day my love. I shall refrain from my usual display of affection until you are feeling less bloated."  
  
Akane cocked the hammer of the handgun she had shot Ryoga with and shoved it a little harder into Kuno's crotch. She seemed satisfied enough with the color his face turned and didn't pull the trigger. Even though she knew she'd regret it later. She calmly collected two of the plasma guns and removed the ammo from the other two. They kind of looked like batteries of some kind, but they were warm, and she could see a glowing orange fluid inside the cell. It was her first energy weapon, and she was most interested in seeing how it performed. "You already killed everything that way?" she asked as she glanced back down the way he had come.  
  
"Yes! I bravely faced this wicked enemy in order to rescue you my..."  
  
"Do I look like I need rescuing?" she replied irritably.  
  
"Allow me to escort..."  
  
"Touch me and I'll shoot you," snapped the girl as she flashed a glare at him.   
  
Kuno was intelligent enough to realize that she just might do it. "Akane Tendo, I merely wish too see you home safe. Why do you..."  
  
"Why?" she muttered as she started walking away. "Go home Kuno. I'll make it home just fine. I don't need your help, and I don't want it."  
  
"This worries me. Akane Tendo, it is not fitting for a man of my position to merely abandon a woman..."  
  
The girl whirled around and slugged him in the stomach. "I've had about all of the help I can take from you. Why can't you just leave me alone?"  
  
Kuno chuckled as he cradled his belly and stared up at her. "These taps of affection..."  
  
The girl ignored him and continued walking, he followed behind her persistently. She was growing tired of that conversation. It was so tempting to just turn and blow his brains out, end her problem forever. No one would notice or care, and his death would be blamed on the aliens.   
  
Kuno had his hand on her shoulder at this point and was sniffing a rose as he looked far off into the side of the buildings next to them. "Tis a lovely day for such a casual stroll..."  
  
The girl planted her fist into his jaw. "If you're going to follow me keep quiet, and don't touch me. I'm sick of arguing with you about this."  
  
The older boy merely cocked his head sideways and thought on the matter behind her. "Such ferocity, surely she is embarrassed by her feelings of love, and feels she must constrain them. How then do I break her free of such bonds?" It was something he'd been pondering for years. Akane Tendo was the reason he lost his first tooth. A fond memory indeed, the first time she proved her prowess and worthiness to him in battle.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma was mentally cursing herself. The girls were already hanging from cocoons in the wall, they looked tired and pale, almost glued into place. She was staring up at them calmly with a rocket launcher hefted in her arms.   
  
One of them looked up at her with a dazed glaze over her eyes. "Who are you?"  
  
The redhead didn't speak, her count was good and they were all here. Ten girls and all of them were together. She climbed up the wall and started ripping chunks of it out. "I'll need a decontamination team. I've found some on one of the upper levels. Not too far gone, but they ain't okay either."  
  
"Understood, we are clearing out the lower chamber now," was the crackled reply.   
  
The redhead started carving out large chunks of the sticky substance from around the girls. One at a time they were set free from the chambers and staggered around her in the nude with dazed stumbles. Ranma didn't like the situation much. It was rare for her to find any salvageable humans at this point in a ship. The girls were new arrivals, but they would still need years of therapy to cope with what had happened to them. They were an unfortunate group. The redhead made them all sit against the wall and guarded them patiently by strolling up and down the hallway. All of their captors had been killed of course, and their bodies were lying around the room.   
  
The redhead didn't speak, and the girls calmed very quickly. After several minutes the dazed stares became more alert. Ranma glanced at the group and placed something that flashed red over and over in the middle of the floor. "Don't touch this, and don't let it leave your sight. I can't stay here, and you can't come with me."  
  
"No! You can't leave us!" cried one of the girls as she jumped up to her feet. A few of the others had joined her and everyone looked alarmed.  
  
"There's guys comin ta help ya already. If I don't keep goin forward they're gonna start comin ta me. Ya stay here and you'll be fine. You come with me, you'll die for sure." She nodded her head towards the device on the floor. "That's a tracking beacon, there are soldiers just behind me. Stay here, I mean it."  
  
"Who are you?" asked one of the confused girls. Quite a few of them had started to wonder about that.  
  
"Don't worry about that." The redhead strolled away grinding her teeth in frustration. These alien dick heads were so gonna get it.   
  
She glanced over her shoulder at the huddled group of girls as the door closed. After a minute or so of walking she found herself in a storage room. Large crates of supplies, ammunition, and a few vehicles filled the room around her. Mostly it was a garage of some kind.  
  
Something caught her attention in a nearby corner. It was a tiny robot. It looked almost like a midget and was only about two and a half feet tall. The metal was painted red, but it was old and faded looking. Two lenses appeared on the face where the eyes should have been and a small speaker hole was cut where a mouth should be. It was shut down and dust covered, but she didn't recall seeing any sort of robot like it before. Most of Proton or Ryoga's creations were quite a bit larger. She blew some dust off the chrome skull and frowned. It was Proton's symbol, she hadn't seen it in years. A sort of stylized 'P' that turned itself into a circle almost. Hibiki had his own mark and never used his former master's symbol. It was an unfamiliar model.   
  
She hefted her arms around it and arched her eyebrows as she easily managed to turn it on. It's programming was erased and a system restore screen was flashing. Ranma chuckled at the next screen. "Erase hard drive, or change base settings?" The redhead wasn't in any particular hurry anymore. All of the babes had been rescued, and he'd done enough in the streets and opening up the way in to get credit for at least helping to save the day. A mysterious redhead could get some of the credit from time to time.   
  
She wasn't in it for the credit, though that helped her get laid. No, she was squatting down next to the robot going through options screens because she liked explosions. It was meant to be an infiltration unit, its small size allowed it to hide easily and sneak around in areas. It was also expendable, and Proton tended to use a lot of things like that when he used them. They could carry a large variation of weapons as well. Somehow one of them must have escaped Duke without too much damage somewhere and these things had scavenged it. It looked like it had been ignored for a long time.  
  
The tiny thing stood up and the lenses on its metal skull focused.   
  
Ranma closed the access panel. She would have to update some of the security software if it survived the trip. "Yer comin with me. I could use some cannon fodder ta check things ahead fer me."  
  
The thing zoomed in on the boy and paused. It beeped a few times and started walking around a bit, keeping the head trained on its new master. "What is my mission?" asked the little robotic voice.   
  
"If you see anything not human on this ship. Kill it. Yer on point fer a little while. Let's see how long ya last. I'll decide if I should keep you or not dependin on how long ya last."  
  
The small thing processed this information. "Available armaments?"   
  
"I'll give you a shotgun, the rest is onsite procurement."   
  
"Range of motion limitations?"  
  
"Don't get too far ahead of me, five hundred meters or so."  
  
"Thank you, have a nice day, sir."  
  
The redhead paused and looked down at the thing for a moment as it scurried off. "Okay."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane's eye twitched. Her finger was actually itching. She'd thought it was just an expression. Tatewaki Kuno strolled along beside her as they neared the Kuno mansion. He had his weapons tucked inside his belt and did his very best to persuade her to think they were on a romantic stroll. He had his hand on her shoulder and gazed longingly into the distance.  
  
"Ah, such a fine day my love. I return victorious from battle, only to find my tigress awaiting my return! Oh, Akane Tendo! I shall go out with thee!"  
  
The angry looking girl promptly slugged him in the gut. "I told you not to touch me! Go home!" She pointed at the gates beside her and glared at him as he stood up and clutched his stomach.   
  
"Ah! Come my love! We have arrived! Never again shall you have to return to your hovel, cursed by a wicked sister, and consumed by poverty!"  
  
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! I'll kill you!"  
  
"Brother dear..."   
  
Akane paused as her head slowly turned. She had Kuno by the neck and her handgun was pressed firmly against his balls. Her teeth were gritted together and light foam was forming at the corners of her mouth. Two bloodshot eyes stared at the girl standing in the gates of the Kuno estate. "Is this your brother?"  
  
"Y-yes," muttered the strange girl. She was about the same age as Akane and had her long dark hair tied into a ponytail. She was dressed in a uniform from an expensive private all girls school nearby. "Tachi? Who is this strange girl?"  
  
"My true beloved Akane Tendo!" gasped the older boy.   
  
"Oh yes. This is the girl who is in all of those pictures in your room!" The girl seemed quite cheerful and pleased to meet her.   
  
Akane's eyes returned to the older boy's face. He was starting to turn purple, and she cocked the hammer of her weapon back.  
  
"It's so nice to meet you. I can't seem to kill him either. I've tried all sorts of poisons, but he just doesn't die. I never imagined I should try firearms."  
  
Akane relaxed her grip on his neck a bit and turned to look at the girl in surprise. "Who are you again?"  
  
"Forgive me. I am Kodachi Kuno. Sister of this fool."  
  
"I guess I can hand him over to you," replied the gun-wielding girl with a small shrug.  
  
"No need. Please feel free to shoot him," said Kodachi cheerfully. "I thought I was the only one who disliked him this much!"  
  
Akane seemed to realize what she was doing and put the handgun away. She kneed Kuno in the crotch and backed away from him as he fell to the ground. "I might have gotten away with it earlier, but the aliens have been gone to long to blame it on them now. I'm Akane Tendo by the way."  
  
"Is he bothering you? I managed to keep him out of my room at least. Maybe I could offer a few tips."  
  
Akane shrugged and followed the girl through the gates. "How did you avoid the aliens? I thought everyone was kidnapped."  
  
"I keep a supply of gasses and poisons with me most of the time. It wasn't difficult to escape, though my friends were taken. It's a pity, but I'm afraid I couldn't do much to help them."  
  
The other girl grunted and followed Kodachi into the home. "Whatever. I'm a pretty good shot though."  
  
"If you poison my brother enough times, he will leave you alone," replied Kodachi calmly. "It takes a bit of time, but it's truly wonderful to have some privacy once you've done it."  
  
"Really?" Akane blinked in mild surprise at the bloated crocodile that was sunning itself while lying in a large splatter of entrails. Various alien pieces littered the ground around it, a few heads and limbs. "Nice pet."  
  
"Thank you. Unfortunately, he doesn't eat my brother. Mr. Turtle didn't work out, but he was just too adorable. I decided to keep him anyway."  
  
"Right. Adorable. Is there anything that can hurt your brother? I beat him up so much it's rare for me to see him without having to clobber him."  
  
"It's difficult to make him sick, he's built up a remarkable tolerance to most poisons. I can tell you what works best against him. I'm constantly having to change the dosage and poisons I use. I've built up something of a tolerance myself. I enjoy the flavor it brings to food."  
  
"You can use poison to make food taste better?" asked Akane in confusion.   
  
"Oh, most certainly," said Kodachi cheerfully.   
  
Akane paused, and seemed to think about that for a moment. "I guess that makes sense." She was lead through the center of the home towards Kodachi's bedroom. The building was very old and the girl's room was enormous. "Wow. Nice room. You do gymnastics?"  
  
"Hohohohohohohohoho! I am the regional champion in Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts!"  
  
"I practice martial arts myself. Tendo School of Anything Goes martial arts."  
  
"Really? It seems we have much in common. Unfortunately, it is because of my brother mostly."  
  
"Where is he anyway?" asked Akane as she glanced around. She halfway expected him to try and grab her again any time. She was in his house after all.  
  
"My brother will not come near this room if he can help it. Do not worry," said Kodachi cheerfully. "Let me show you my lab. Tachi is quite resistant to physical pain."  
  
"I think that's mostly my fault. I beat him up all the time."  
  
"Really? My understanding was that you were quite fond of him. I am relieved to find my brother will probably not reproduce."  
  
"You're relieved?" said Akane cheerfully. Kuno's sister wasn't bad at all. She was starting to like her.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
The small metal robot Ranma had picked up moved forward at a quick pace. The shotgun rested in its small three fingered hands. The robot paused as it glanced around at a crossway in the hall. It could move forward, up, or down. The bio scanners told it that most of the targets in the ship were above it. Almost all the life below it was human, and currently off limits. The thing beeped excitedly as it started jogging towards the upward leading hallway. The ship was very organic and lacked stairs of any kind, the ground just inclined when the hallway branched.   
  
The upper levels of the ship were even more alien. The walls looked alive almost. Doors were more like membranes and orifices. Everything became a sickly green, and large puddles of liquids on the ground made it look almost like it was the innards of some giant monster.  
  
The machine cocked its shotgun as it walked into a room full of pigs. They all looked down at it in confusion and grunted. The robot realized that it was surrounded and had only a single shotgun. The pig things just sort of stood around it grunting at each other. It was obvious they were trying to figure out what it was doing there.   
  
The robot walked up to a few of them and took three shotguns. Two extra arms had popped out of small doors on its back and chest. The pig creatures weren't alarmed by this and backed away a bit while the robot returned to the center of the room. The head turned and scanned all of them.  
  
One of them stepped forward and grunted.  
  
Without warning the small robot spun its body around at high speed and fired the shotguns. Within a few seconds all twenty of the pig creatures were dead. The robot paused long enough to procure a few more weapons and reload.   
  
The biosensors told it to continue forward, another disturbance in the electromagnetic field ahead also made it aware that other robots barred its path. Not that it mattered much, after all, orders were orders.  
  
"Heh heh." A rather maniacal sounding laugh escaped the speaker on its face.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma was growing irritated. She sighed as she walked through the large hole blasted in one of the walls. It looked like the little shit head had gotten ahold of a rocket launcher or three somewhere along the way. "This is startin to piss me off." Ranma was getting impressed. The robot was efficient and destructive. Nothing had been left alive yet, and she'd come across more than just dead pigs. It was slaughtering the aliens as well.   
  
She glanced around at the walls and grunted in annoyance. The shattered remains of a few security droids littered the ground. It was obvious the little asshole had a laser weapon now. There was slashing burns cut into the walls. A few of them were even still on fire.  
  
"Come back here ya jerk,"   
  
The redhead stumbled into the next room and shook the wiring from the broken arm that had caught her pants off. She paused and glanced up at the gigantic brain that was spilled across the floor. It was a really large one, with a metal jaw and some sort of claws. It looked like a cyborg version of one of the floating brain aliens that she'd killed onboard. It was also about three times larger than the normal ones.  
  
The robot was standing in the doorway. "You ordered me back sir?"  
  
"Huh?" The redhead glared at the offending thing and tapped her foot on the ground. "You killed everything!"  
  
"Those were my orders sir," replied the thing in an even tone.   
  
"I would have had fun killing this thing." She sighed and looked the dead monster.  
  
:"If it is any consolation sir, I enjoyed killing it."  
  
"Yeah, whatever." Ranma seemed somewhat disappointed and waved the metal thing over to him. "I was kinda expecting you to get destroyed. I'll let you know if I want help. For now, just follow me and watch my back."  
  
"If my protocol is protection I recommend I take point."  
  
"You might come in handy. I'm takin you with me if you live through this. Might do a few upgrades and such. I got friends that can help with that kinda crap."  
  
"My logic circuits tell me that you are trying to persuade me to survive. I would remind you that I would prefer to keep destroying meat bags and causing property damage sir. It is all my programming allows for."  
  
"This thing kicks ass." Ranma was quite pleased with her find. "Hey. I'll trade you for that laser. I've got a grenade launcher I'm willing to give up."  
  
"That would upgrade my capabilities considerably. I am currently out of explosive ordinance."  
  
"Great. How many rooms you cleared out?"  
  
"The next three chambers are cleared."  
  
She smirked as she walked through three sets of the organic doors. The membranes seemed to contract allowing her to pass though. When she reached the other side, her boots were considerably dirtier. "Man. It's like you used a blender or somethin."  
  
"That is essentially what I used the laser for sir."  
  
"Quit callin me sir."  
  
"Yes Ma'am."  
  
"You ever call me that again and I'll turn you into metal shavings. I ain't a girl."  
  
"Fine. Meatbag."  
  
"Say what?"  
  
"My programming only allows for three designations: Sir, Ma'am, and Meatbag. Please feel free to select the one you prefer."  
  
"Meatbag is fine. Only you can call me that though."  
  
"Very well Meatbag."  
  
"Can't you get more creative than that?" grumbled Ranma.  
  
"No, Meatbag."  
  
"Don't call me that every time you say somethin."  
  
"I should remind you that we are currently in a hostile environment, and I am unable to defend you because of my current instructions."  
  
They were walking through a large open room with several slim pillars that dotted the interior. Otherwise it was empty and quiet.  
  
"Yeah. Whatever. Those jerks ain't hidin up there." Ranma didn't even bother looking up as she fired at the top of the two nearest pillars with her Desert Eagle handguns.  
  
Two dead aliens hit the ground with a dull thump. Their cloaking devices flickered on and off as they landed and shut down after a few seconds.  
  
"Meatbag, I was unaware you had thermal vision capabilities. Have you been modified?"  
  
"Nah. I'm just that good."  
  
"Logic does not compute."  
  
"Scurry away for some cover will ya?" Ranma smirked as she slowly turned towards the wall that was lifting up to their right. The entire left wall was slowly rising upward revealing dozens of clawed feet on the other side. An entire battalion of aliens stood waiting on the other side. Two of the cyborg brain creatures floated on either side of a giant half tank half-alien monster. It had treads for feet and a human like torso. The skull was half-metal with a glowing red eye and the bottom jaw was nothing but razor like spikes. Both of its arms ended in a massive laser cannon.   
  
"You stupid dicks never learn. Don't line up for someone with a minigun." Ranma unloaded an entire belt of ammo into the alien soldiers. The rounds she was using were armor piercing and ripped them to shreds easily. She was able to clean them out in a few seconds and only dodged a few shots.   
  
The larger aliens roared in anger as they converged on the redheaded girl. She had already dropped the spent weapon to the ground and pulled a pair of sawn off shotguns from her sides. "Bring it on."  
  
The giant alien chuckled as the brain creatures appeared on either side of her.   
  
Ranma's eyebrow twitched as they all did something she'd never seen before. Tentacle like protrusions began to drop from underneath the brains, and the giant creature's back suddenly became swarming with rope like whips that moved around violently behind it.   
  
The two brain creature's screamed as a blue energy filled their eyes. Sonic waves slammed into the redhead as they filled the entire room. She jerked as if struck from both sides, but remained standing. She was adjusting her grip on the shotguns and kept both of them trained on the brain things that moved slowly towards her. The tentacles began to rise and reach for her.  
  
"Oh no! You did not just pull this shit with me!" Blood dripped from her nose and it was starting to form in the corners of her eyes as well. She tossed the shotguns to the ground and back flipped away from the slowly reaching appendages.   
  
All three of the monsters seemed surprised by this. They roared in alarm and sent waves out that seemed to stab her brain repeatedly. The monsters started to rush towards her reaching with the disgusting protrusions again.   
  
Ranma spit blood onto the ground and pulled the silver weapon from her back once again. She adjusted one of the dials and it split into two handgun style weapons. They were both still almost as large as an AK-47, but with a chrome surface and more electrical components.   
  
Beams of blue light blasted out of each weapon as the twin automatic railguns began to put holes through the charging beasts. The bullets were only about the size of a pellet from an air rifle, but they traveled at about the speed of light.   
  
She flipped them around her hands and holstered them just behind her back in her belt as the two brain creatures fell to the ground. The larger monster slashed at her with its whip like protrusions and she skillfully back flipped out of the way. She skillfully twisted in the air to avoid being caught by the follow up attacks and landed crouched down with her rocket launcher hefted and aimed at the thing's face.   
  
The thing's head was tossed back by the explosion and the small girl quickly rolled across the ground to avoid another attack from the tentacles. She bounced off a wall and began to run and jump on top of the thing's tentacles as she continuously fired her handguns into its chest. When the monster's chest was completely covered in green fluid she jumped down and spun around in mid air as she pulled the two silver handguns out from behind her back once more. As her feet gently touched the floor she unloaded a few dozen rounds directly into the thing's head, and through the upper decks of the ship.   
  
She smirked to herself as it fell face first onto the top of its own treads. The mechanical part was still working and ripped both arms off before grinding to a halt as it drove the head into one of the walls and snapped the neck. Not that the monster felt it anyway.  
  
Ranma walked over to the body and kicked it a few times. She glanced around the room and saw the little robot walking up to her from the other side of the room. She grabbed the head and began to tug on it.  
  
"Might I inquire what you are doing Meatbag?"  
  
The small redheaded girl was how holding the ripped off head in her arms and tossed it aside. She pulled out a newspaper from one of her pockets and dropped her pants as she squatted down over the thing's neck hole. "What does it look like?"  
  
"It appears you are..."  
  
"Yeah. I am. You got a name?" The girl casually turned the page to the sports section.   
  
"I am RDD-19."  
  
"That stand for something?"  
  
"I am number nineteen in a line of fifty Reconnaissance Demolition Droids."  
  
"Any more like you left?" She only seemed partially interested as she perused the newsprint.   
  
"I do not believe any more of my line has survived this long. I have not received any signals from others in many years."  
  
"That must suck."  
  
"I am a robot. One advantage of that is I never get lonely."  
  
"You're a pretty big wise ass for a robot."   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
  
  
"He is dead," growled the lead alien as his chair swiveled to face his crew. "The boy has killed him."  
  
His commander frowned as he turned away from his master. "I was certain only Nukem himself could escape such a trap."  
  
"We are defeated. Signal our surrender."  
  
"You have got to be joking." The commander smirked as he glanced back at his leader. "Do you really think he'll accept our surrender now? We die with honor." He strolled towards the ship's controls. "We'll burn him alive in the atmosphere with us. If we're going to die, let us die as legends."   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma staggered for a moment and put her hand against the wall. "What the?" She glanced back at the robot. "We just took off didn't we?"  
  
"Yes, Meatbag."  
  
"Great. Looks like they got to my plan before me. Anyone left onboard besides us?"  
  
"All human targets have been removed. We have ten minutes to escape, once we reach the atmosphere we will be destroyed. The hull of this ship is badly damaged."  
  
"We're close to the upper deck aren't we?" The redhead glanced at the rocket pack she was carrying over her shoulders. "I got a ride already. Yer screwed if you don't find somethin."  
  
"I have limited flight capabilities. I can glide to the ground with ease. Two small wings popped out from his back. I lack propulsion of any kind though."  
  
"I got enough fuel to make it down all right. Just gotta slow down enough once I start to get close to the ground."  
  
"The nearest exit to the outer hull is fifteen feet above us. There is a junction just ahead."  
  
The pigtailed girl shrugged and started jogging with the small robot beside her.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane found herself talking cheerfully with Kodachi Kuno in the girl's room. She blushed when she realized what was going on. "Oh. I'm sorry, but I should be getting home. My father is probably worried."  
  
"Really? That's too bad. I do hope we can speak again."  
  
"I'll give you my phone number."  
  
"I shall give you mine as well."  
  
"I already know the house number."  
  
"Tachi?"  
  
"He doesn't call much thankfully. I think my sister gave him the number. He used to try to get me to call him. I think he stopped when I shoved that phone receiver up his nose."  
  
"That was you? It took the doctor almost a week to get that out. It was genius of you to leave the chord attached. I used to plug it back into the outlet! The noise would drive him mad!!" Kodachi seemed quite pleased to remember that.   
  
"I'm glad to hear about it. It was nice meeting you. I wish I could stay longer, but my family is probably really worried about me." Akane bowed politely and turned to walk away.   
  
"Hmmm. Akane Tendo, I shall have to remember that name." Kodachi smirked as she turned back into the home. "Brother dear! I have something for you! Come see me in the kitchen!"  
  
"Does your wickedness know no bounds woman?! I know better than to accept such affections from you! Begone! I am contemplating the purity of my beloved and her giant gun!"  
  
Kodachi narrowed her eyes as she glared towards his room. She'd seen the weapons he'd been wearing as well. "That could become troublesome." It was something to think on later, her idiot brother would spend the rest of the night in his room, and they would be out of hand lotion in the morning once again.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma stepped out onto the hull of the ship from a small maintenance exit. The small robot paused and turned to face the bow of the ship.   
  
The redhead's hair was blowing violently in the wind as she narrowed her eyes at the thing staring her down. Her ponytail was wild and messy, and her clothing had small tears and holes in it. A large bruise marked her cheek and dried blood was still present on her face and in her ears. She had both her Desert Eagle handguns out again.   
  
A massive alien monster was holding a rapid-fire energy weapon at her. "You defeated us. Even like that, you beat us."  
  
"I ain't no chick. I'm a man no matter how I look and you'd better not forget it."  
  
"It won't matter in a few minutes. We'll burn up in your own atmosphere. That jetpack of yours won't do you any good. The shields are activated, and you're trapped here with us now. Not even you are good enough to kill me, make it to the bridge and shut down the shields, and then make it to an exit in time.  
  
"Yer right." She glanced down at the robot beside her. "Go shut down the shields while I keep this asshole busy, and then find an exit if you can. If you make it go to home base. Yer on lockdown till I say otherwise."  
  
"Yes Meatbag." The small drone hopped down into the ship again leaving his master facing the alien leader.  
  
"I owe you a painful ass kicking before you die. I got a few minutes ta spare while he does his thing anyway." The girl kicked the hatch shut and aimed her weapons.   
  
The alien monster started to strafe to the left around her as he opened fire with the plasma machinegun. Balls of energy slammed and sizzled into the ground all around the redhead. She skillfully dashed away and fired her handguns at the thing. It jerked back and to the side, but remained standing. The armor plating on its chest prevented the shots from killing it, but the alien obviously felt it.   
  
The starship started to rotate on its axis as it turned into a slow spiraling climb that would keep them over the city. The redhead and the alien monster were forced to keep a steady walking pace to the right to keep their footing. They dashed between protrusions in the hull. Antenna, cannons, pipes became the only cover. Ranma dove and rolled around the heavy repeating plasma weapon's spray of energy returning fire as she moved with both handguns at a steady rate. She was getting low on handgun ammo now and paused only long enough to reload as she came to a fat cannon barrel that jutted out about ten feet above the hull.   
  
"My claws give me a firm grip. I've no fear of falling even if we flip over completely." Her enemy laughed as he fired a few rounds from behind his own cover. They into the open at the same time, both opening fire at the other. Ranma's aim was true, and his opponent was relying on how many bullets he was sending at her rather than where they were going. The monster grunted painfully as the slugs entered its chest.   
  
Ranma was crouched behind an antenna that was about four feet wide at the base. It rose for hundreds of feet above the hull. She loaded her last two clips and caught her breath as the edge slowly crawled towards her.   
  
Both of them froze as a dark shadow loomed over the both of them. The bridge was moving towards them from the left. It was high above in a skyscraper like protrusion that towered thousands of feet above them. They were standing dead in the middle of it.   
  
"Shit." The redhead started running towards the engines of the ship with the alien monster closing in behind her quickly. The thing was firing his weapon ahead of himself as he ran in hopes of catching her in the panicked moment.   
  
Ranma was able to stay ahead of the erratic fire easily as she hooked her hand around the far edge of the bridge and hook herself around the back end and a few hundred yards away from the massive starship engines that slowly pushed the vessel into the atmosphere. She was just able to get her footing and bounced up a few antennas to a point where she could comfortably walk along the hull again.  
  
Ranma was standing on the opposite edge of the spinning ship walking backwards with her hands behind her back. She neatly sidestepped a gigantic antenna as the alien monster climbed back into her line of sight. He was gasping for breath and still gripping his energy weapon firmly in his claws. "I commend you for making it this far, but it ends now. "  
  
The redhead bounded towards him and closed the distance between them quickly as she continued to dodge his fire and return it at the same time. The creature was pelted in the chest repeatedly and had started to grunt painfully with each shot when she finally drew close enough to fly into a hooking kick across his face.   
  
The creature dropped its weapon and bounced across the hull for about ten feet.   
  
Ranma kicked the plasma repeater up into her palms and hooked it across her shoulders in one fluid motion. "Bet Kasumi'll like this one."  
  
"Sir. The shield is disabled." Ranma grunted in response and glanced at the fallen alien leader. He was slowly regaining his feet as the bridge on the opposite side of the tower shattered into a giant ball of flames. The entire ship shook violently, and energy reactions began to form around them as the shields finally failed. "Looks like you lose." The redhead simply remained where she was standing as the entire ship began to rotate to the right as it continued its upward coarse. She kicked off as she felt herself slipping and turned to face the ground as she went into free fall.   
  
The alien commander roared in rage as he managed to stagger away and keep himself from falling off. He was clutching small metal protrusions from the side hull as he glared hatefully at the dwindling speck that had once been Ranma Saotome and let himself hang there as it twisted around. He growled as he realized that he was quickly growing warm.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"We were getting worried," said Izumi as she pushed herself off Ranma's bike. She had been leaning against it when the redhead walked up to her. She paused and seemed to realize something was wrong. "Who are you?"  
  
"Where's that thing gonna land?" asked the beaten looking redhead. She was wearing Ranma's clothes and didn't look very pleased with the alien ship high above.  
  
"Right on top of us. They plotted that coarse in themselves didn't they?" The shorthaired woman frowned at the attitude she was getting from the redhead. "Who the hell are you anyway? Did Ranma find you on the ship or something?"  
  
The girl ignored the woman and started to press buttons on the console of the bike.  
  
"What are you doing? Ranma's not going to like you messing with his bike!"  
  
Izumi found herself sitting flat on her rear as the redhead shoved her back by pushing her hand straight back. "What the hell?! You little bitch!" She paused and reconsidered herself as she watched the bike shift and change as it molded itself on the redhead's shoulder.   
  
"Cover your ears, this is gonna be pretty loud." The ponytailed girl had vicious looking grin on her face as she hefted the barrel of the biggest looking firearm Izumi had ever seen.  
  
"Wow!" she muttered as she stared at it in awe. "I didn't know Ranma had such a big gun."  
  
"Yeah." The redhead looked into the twenty-inch display screen in front of her face. Various readouts and targeting information was displayed. Mechanical assists could be heard moving the arm as she aimed and the rear end that hung down her back planted itself firmly into the ground with long metal spikes that shot out from what had once been the suspension system for the front wheel. A beam of energy ripped through the sky creating a sizzling tearing sound as it melted a massive hole through the side of the starship above.   
  
"Don't look at it without eye protection," said the redhead.  
  
Izumi gasped and covered her eyes as she hit the dirt.  
  
There was a flash of bright light in the sky above and then what seemed like a solid wave of sound that shattered every window in the city and quite a few in the suburbs.   
  
"God damn, I live for this shit," gasped Ranma. It was an amazing explosion.   
  
Izumi simply cowered on the ground for a moment longer and slowly staggered to her feet. "What the hell did you do?"  
  
"Blasted it over the ocean. This was all I could use to do it. Nothin else with enough kick around." The redhead pressed a few buttons on the side of the weapon next to her head and it returned to the bike form.   
  
"Who are you?" Izumi looked annoyed by this new person. "Do you know Ranma or something?"  
  
"Yeah. Somethin." The girl revved the engine a few times and jumped the front end off the ground as she sped away into the streets.   
  
Izumi stood there and growled at the irritating newcomer. "What a bitch! The nerve of her! Oooohh! Just..." She stomped her foot and clenched her fists. "How dare you talk to me that way! Who do you think you are!?"   
  
Unfortunately, Ranma was already long gone.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane sighed as she walked into the gates of her home and looked around. There were people everywhere. "Hey. I'm home!"  
  
"My darling baby! WAHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAHHHHHHAAAAHHHH!!!"  
  
"Hi dad." Akane neatly sidestepped her father's blind charge and he fell face first onto the ground. "We have company?"  
  
"Um. You could say that." Kasumi popped her head out of the kitchen. Akane quickly realized that she was not in there alone. There were about five women bustling about inside, not counting her sister.   
  
"Do you need any help?" Akane was itching to try some of Kodachi's advice out.  
  
"No! I'm afraid I may have too much help as it is. We're very crowded in here."  
  
"Oh. Never mind then." The younger sibling brushed it off. "Who are all these people Kasumi?"  
  
"They all came home with me after I went shopping earlier."  
  
Akane decided it was better if she didn't know. "Has Ranma made it back yet?"  
  
The entire house shook violently as a loud boom filled the air, after a second it passed and everyone looked around nervously.  
  
"I guess he isn't back yet then."  
  
Kasumi didn't seem bothered in the slightest. "He should be home anytime now I suppose. That's good, dinner will be ready soon. I hope he doesn't miss it. I'm sure we'll have plenty left if he does."  
  
"Whatever. I'm gonna go put some of my stuff up." Akane walked into the living room and nodded at the girls sitting around in front of the television.   
  
"Wow! Did you see that?" gasped the shopkeeper's daughter.   
  
"Akane and Kasumi are so cool!" agreed one of the others. "Did you see all that stuff she's wearing? She looks like some kind of soldier!"  
  
"I could never be like that. I'm just not brave enough!" muttered another in the group.   
  
"None of us are near that butch you mean. Akane and Kasumi are brave girls, but I wouldn't want to be around that kind of danger. Not with some of the things I've heard about those aliens." It was one of the older girls that said this. She hugged her knees against her chest and shuddered.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Ranma kicked open the bar door and stepped into the silent smoky room. "Double bourbon." He sat down at the bar. Duke Nukem was at his right with a beer in his hand.   
  
Larry poured the drink and slid it over to the boy who downed it quickly. "Beer?"  
  
"Jesus yeah," grumbled the boy irritably.  
  
"Bad day?" Duke didn't even look at him and continued to stare at his own reflection.   
  
"They shoulda known better than to pull that shit with me. I'm more interested in how they found out."  
  
"Found out?"  
  
"It's nothing, just got under my skin a little more than usual this time."  
  
Duke merely nodded once and continued to drink. "We'll have to keep that in mind. I heard she showed up again."  
  
"Yup."  
  
"Her?" Larry leaned in close to Carl and put his hand up. "Think it's that Akane chick?"  
  
"I dunno. I been hearin strange rumors about some chick that's been hangin around the kid a lot. No one's said nothin though. I don't think it's that Akane chick though. Girl I heard about has red hair according to witnesses."  
  
Larry shrugged. "I don't trust rumor. I'm not about to go over there and ask them about their business either."  
  
Ranma seemed to relax a bit. "Hibiki is up to somethin. I ain't sure what though."  
  
"He'll have to play his cards sooner or later." Duke didn't seem particularly interested. "Best not to worry till then. We got lots of grateful chicks to keep us company till then."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
The two men sat in silence and continued to drink their beer.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
RDD-19 stood in front of the Tendo Dojo and simply looked up at the sign. "Designated waiting area." He began to scan the area within and found quite a few life forms inside.  
  
"Targets within main living area." He was unable to engage anything at the moment so stealth was his best option. He quietly moved up beside the porch and folded himself up into his most compact form to await the return of his master. After plugging himself into an outdoor outlet with a probing wire that snaked across the ground to a nearby wall outlet. It moved into scan mode and began to survey its surroundings and gather information. His report would be quite detailed.   
  
The robot tittered cheerfully when he realized there was a fully stocked armory on the second floor of the home. It was somehow comforting to be near so many explosives, and explosives were the best way to make sure something ceased to function. Its eyes became circles of red as it replayed the destruction of the alien starship in its memory a few times. A small evil sounding laugh escaped its speaker as it waited for the master's return.   
  
"Saotome, what do you suppose this thing is?" asked Soun as he turned to look at the robot sitting beside his porch. "I do believe it was laughing at us."  
  
Genma was busy cheating and ignored the technical looking thing. "Must belong to Kasumi."  
  
"I don't remember buying this thing." The man scratched his head as he peered at the strange object.   
  
"It is rather odd." Genma peered down at the small canister looking object. He seemed satisfied with his new set up. "It's plugged in, must be some sort of appliance."  
  
The robot came to life suddenly as its red eyes turned to face Genma. "RDD-19! It slices, it dices, it juliennes cannon fodder in seconds flat!"  
  
"Must be some sort of blender." Genma shrugged and knocked his fist against the things metal cranium.   
  
"Oh, right. Saotome, perhaps we should..." Soun wanted to go back under the porch.  
  
Genma grabbed him by the shoulder and obliviously moved him towards the Shogi board. "I'm sure everything will be fine."  
  
"Where is your security clearance?"  
  
"I suppose you're right, Saotome."  
  
"Where is your security clearance?"  
  
"Come on, Tendo! It seems my son has saved the day. Soon he'll be married, and we'll be living the good life!"  
  
"Where is your security clearance?"  
  
"I'm not sure I like the way that thing is looking at me Saotome."  
  
"Where is your security clearance?"  
  
"It's just a microwave, Tendo."  
  
"Where is your security clearance?"  
  
"I thought you said it was a blender!"  
  
"Where is your security clearance?" The little droid's head was pointing backwards directly at Soun. "Failure to comply will result in termination of vital signs." The two red eyes were somehow narrowed by lenses, and burned brightly. It was pointing guns at him, about five of them. Most of them were pretty large. He was quite certain that at least one of them would cause an explosion.  
  
"What?" whimpered Soun as he turned his head back to find Genma's spot vacant. The door to the upstairs room closed shut just as his head whipped up to find his friend. "Saotome! How could you?"  
  
"Where is your security clearance?"  
  
"What? I...I don't have one!" The man's brain had basically shut down.   
  
"Doesn't it feel good to be honest, Meatbag?" The droid cackled as the weapons lowered and moved into various slots along the machine's body. "Fooled ya! Ehhh? Eeeehhhh?" It was opening and closing the irises of the lenses and the lights had dimmed a bit. The head turned back forward and lowered as it seemed to go back to sleep.  
  
Soun decided the floor where he was sitting was the perfect place to fall asleep.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Kasumi Tendo was finally finished with the biggest meal she'd ever cooked. It had been quite a day and a warm cup of tea was just what everyone needed. The guests were returning home, as the danger was now past. Things returned to normal rather quickly once the alien spaceship had been blown over the ocean. The resulting explosion did cause a few nasty accidents along the coast, but damage was kept to a minimum. That's what the news said anyway.  
  
All Kasumi Tendo knew for certain was that explosions were definitely better in real life. The movies were certainly exciting and all, but...there was just something about that boom that seemed to poke at something deep inside her. It made her face flush and caused her skin to tingle just to think about it. She never imagined it would be so loud.   
  
This line of thought caused her brow to furrow as she walked up to Nabiki's room to check up on her. Dr. Tofu was with her at the moment. The man stepped out of her younger sister's room and froze in mid step with the door still open.   
  
"Oh!" gasped the older girl in mild surprise. "Dr. Tofu, is Nabiki doing any better?"  
  
The man's eye twitched and he just sort of stayed where he was. "Kasumi! Imagine meeting you here? Heh heh ha ha ha ha!" His laugh was very forced and he was having nervous twitches.   
  
"Dr. Tofu? I hate to be rude, but please be serious. I'm worried about my sister!" She seemed a bit cross with him. She didn't want to hurt his feelings. He was such a nice man. It was hard to pretend to be upset with him.   
  
"Nabiki will be fine." The unfortunate man was completely ridged. He'd never been scolded by Kasumi before. "Wow! Imagine running into you here Kasumi! Ha ha ha ha haha!"  
  
"Oh my! Are you sure you're all right Dr.?" Kasumi was starting to feel much better now that he was back to his old self again. He'd gotten so quiet that night. Everyone kept telling her he was a smart man and a good doctor. She didn't doubt he was a good doctor, but the intelligent part she was beginning to wonder about.  
  
"Fine!"  
  
"Good. It was quite a day!" Screw it, she was getting tired of this crap. "I haven't seen so much excitement since the movies. All those guns, and explosions!" She grabbed his hand and started to lead him towards the stairs. She didn't seem to be in any hurry and talked with him as they went. Tofu was feeling somewhat relieved, he had enough sense to realize she was leading him out and wasn't upset with him.   
  
"There's only one thing missing though." She stopped and looked down the stairs for a moment with his hand held gently. She glanced at him and sighed. "Dr.?" He wasn't talking and she could no longer see his eyes. His glasses had steamed up far too much again.   
  
She opened the door to her room and almost threw him inside by jerking his arm in the right direction and letting go. "Oh dear. I do hope this helps." She seemed to ponder it as reached behind her back and unzipped her dress as she walked into her room and closed the door rather firmly.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Nabiki was lying awake in bed with her eyes wide open. The door had still not been shut yet, and her entire world had been shattered in about twenty-four hours. Everything she knew was wrong, every constant had been changed. Ranma Saotome had landed into her life and changed it completely.   
  
The trouble was she wasn't sure if it was good or bad.   
  
She rolled onto her side and huddled a bit closer to herself under the covers. Whatever those pills were Tofu had given her, they were starting to kick in. She was aware her leg was hurt, but unaware of any pain. After a few moments of lying there hoping her sister wasn't a screamer she forced her eyes shut.   
  
As she started to feel the world slowly drift away she gave a small snorting laugh. Just how lucky could Tofu be anyway?  
  
Her eyebrow twitched as she heard something crack and snap. A whimper of pain from the next room and another crack followed by a rhythmic thumping sound against the wall. The sleep gone from her in an instant she sat bolt upright in bed.   
  
"Who's gun is bigger?"  
  
"Yours Mistress! Yours!" Tofu was crying, she could hear it in his voice.  
  
Nabiki Tendo ignored the faint stabbing of her leg as she hefted her sheets and pillow over her shoulder, grabbed her crutch, and hobbled herself out of her room and towards the dojo. "I'm going to make sure this only happens at that damn clinic in the future." She wasn't pleased and glared over her shoulder at the scratching sound at the base of her older sister's door.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Akane Tendo pushed open the doors to the bar and glanced around. It was late, and she was only armed with the handgun in her handbag. Everyone turned to look at her.  
  
"You gonna tell me what this is about?" asked Duke Nukem. He was sitting next to Ranma.  
  
"No." The boy was ignoring the television. A reporter was sitting at a news desk with a serious look on his face. Behind his head was a silhouette with a question mark inside it. "Jane Nukem?" was the subtitle below it.   
  
"Those news reports?" asked Akane.   
  
"You know somethin? He ain't talkin. S'not like him." Duke turned around on his stool and rested his beer on his knee. "The kid found all this new shit out about the aliens. He ain't sayin how. Usually, that's his favorite part. He keeps leavin this chick out of things too. You ain't mentioned one thing about that chick yet. What, you think I'll think less of ya if you decide to have a steady girl for a while? I done it a couple of times myself. Wears off real quick."  
  
"You didn't tell him?" asked the girl as she frowned at her so-called fiancee.   
  
"Who I tell is my business."  
  
  
  
Akane wasn't real impressed, but backed off. "Sooner or later, someone's gonna find out."  
  
"I'll worry about it when it happens."  
  
"Fine," growled Akane irritably.   
  
"What are you doing here anyway?" Ranma seemed to just realize that she was out of place. "I usually don't have to argue with you here. It was kind of nice till you ruined it."  
  
Akane slugged him across his jaw. He fell into the stools clumsily and glared up at her from under his glasses.  
  
"I've had a few drinks, so I don't recall if I've told you before. Don't hit me unless you mean it." He rubbed at his jaw and sat upright.  
  
The girl kicked him in the face. "Get up! You want to fight!? Fine!"  
  
Duke glanced at Larry and shook his head.   
  
"Outside," said the bartender firmly. He hadn't even looked up at them yet. The other patrons were largely uninterested.   
  
"Ain't like Ranma to fight a girl," said Carl.  
  
"So? Ain't like he's gonna win," replied Duke. "The kid is tanked right now. He's been suckin em down all night."  
  
The door opened and Akane staggered into the bar with Ranma hung across her shoulder. "I'm taking him home." Her clothes were ripped a bit, and she had a few bruises. Ranma had dozens of lumps on his head and quite a bit more bruising. With that said, she turned away.  
  
"Didn't come all the way here just to drag me home did you?" grumbled the boy as he woke back up.  
  
"No. I just needed to go someplace until Kasumi finished with Tofu." Her answer was simple and no nonsense. "I was thinking of drinking to forget what I was hearing."  
  
It made no sense to him. He shrugged it off. "You did pretty good for yourself I hear."  
  
"Yeah. Keep your hand away from my chest. You probably heard I don't miss from our friends in there."  
  
The boy's slowly moving hand stopped and reversed itself to settle on her shoulder. "Had ta try."  
  
"If you weren't this drunk I'd have kicked your ass by now. Cut it out. I'm never sleeping with you."  
  
"Oh. All ya had ta do was say so," he replied calmly. "Besides, you did kick my ass."  
  
"Honestly!" Akane was a bit miffed at this, but not enough to hurt him. He had immediately started to behave anyway. She really wanted to punch him, and just leave him where he landed. Unfortunately, she did feel he'd done a lot of good that day, and she'd already beat him up once.   
  
"I'm gonna get you fer this in the mornin."  
  
TBC...  
  
Been a while since I updated anything. My Internet access has become...severely limited. I also do not have the carrotglace@mindspring.com address anymore. It's carrotsamma@hotmail.com for now. Also, I must sadly inform you that my E-mail is not often checked. That means no FFML for me till I decide to do something about my current situation. [Unfortunately, not a high priority.] ^_^; I'll be posting things and dropping in from time to time. I'm still writing anyway, and I'll continue to post when I can. [Plus, there are a lot of cool video games coming out this year. ^_^;;] I promise you'll have something else to read soon. Dragon and Ghost just needs a few small revisions and it'll be out as well. [Less than a month.] 


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